


Of Nerds and Reality TV Stars

by InsaneColoratuba



Category: Total Drama
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-05 15:45:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 65,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11581170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneColoratuba/pseuds/InsaneColoratuba
Summary: Erin Hoffman is your average nerdy art student who happens to have a pretty large online following. She ends up as a contestant for Total Drama Island with twenty-three other campers. How will things go? How will Erin do when faced with the challenges thrown at her by the sadistic Chris McLean? (Chris/OC, Chef/OC way later, not the same OC) (Originally posted on fanfiction.net)





	1. ErinysArt

Chris McLean knew that Total Drama Island was going to be awesome. It already had the most amazing, talented, and handsome host in reality television... at least in Chris's mind. The crew wasn't that bad either. Almost everything was set up. The island, the challenges, the hair and makeup trailer... all they needed were the campers.

At the moment, Chris and Chef Hatchet were narrowing down potential contestants. "So that's a yes for the hot blonde? Good. Next applicant." Chris put away the application and picked up the next one on the table. "So it looks like our next applicant is Erin Hoffman." Chris looked down and inspected the application. In the upper right corner was a picture of a girl with long, black hair and light skin. Her bangs hung over her green, glasses-covered eyes. "Name: Erin Renee Hoffman. Age is eighteen... kind of pushing it with the age cap, Erin..."

"When's her birthday?" Chef asked.

"Looks like it'd be during filming," Chris said. "She's from Toronto and just started a program in videogame design and animation at Toronto Film School... Her hobbies include video games, cosplay, and art. I'm getting a stereotypical nerd vibe here. Here we go. Internet alias is ErinysArt. I swear I've heard that username before."

"Google it," Chef said. Chris bit his lower lip and nodded. He took out his laptop and opened up his internet browser. "Please tell me you've stopped using Internet Explorer."

"I used it one time to get Firefox," Chris replied. "And search." The results immediately popped up on the screen, several videos included at the top. "Wow. I got a DeviantArt profile, a Twitch account, Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube, Livestream... Chef, any preference to what I check out first?"

"YouTube," he said. Chris clicked on the link to Erin Hoffman's YouTube channel. When he saw her subscribers, his eyes widened.

"Holy shit. She has two million subscribers," Chris said. "That's probably why I've heard of her. I see a lot of Let's Plays and cosplay tutorials. Shall I pull up the "Best of ErinysArt" Montage?"

"It better be good," Chef said as he walked around to the chair next to Chris.

_"Hi and welcome again to ErinysArt,"_ the voice of a teenage girl said.

"So no face cam," Chris said. The screen showed a game in which the player was a surgeon performing a heart replacement.

_"Who do you think you are? Running round leaving scars... collecting your jar of hearts..."_ Suddenly the hand holding the detached heart twitched and the heart flew across the screen. _"Or tearing them out and throwing them across the room. That works too. That baby flew though..."_ The screen cut to a different run of that same game. _"I think I got this. Whoa... whoa."_ The screen suddenly filled with blurs and colors. _"So I'm pretty sure I just got high. Yet I continue to operate on this man. He can't sue me for malpractice if he's dead... or unconscious. Either one works. You will never understand the stress of being a doctor! I need to get high to feel alive!"_ Chef and Chris started to chuckle at the hyperactive girl. _"Wait, did I just get killed by hawks? I just got killed by hawks. What the hell kind of dating sim is this? I didn't choose a bird to seduce fast enough and I got killed by hawks. Well damn... I guess I'm done with this stream since I freaking got killed by hawks. Um... yeah. Fucking hawks..."_

"There's actually a pigeon dating sim game?" Chris asked between laughs.

"Apparently," Chef replied, laughing along. The video cut to an image of Sims 3. There, a redheaded sim was gardening without clothes on.

_"WHOA! WHY ARE YOU NAKED!? WHY ARE YOU GARDENING NAKED!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING SHAE!? HOLY SHIT! WHY!?"_ Erin's voice shouted. The screen cut to what was obviously Skyrim. Her Dragonborn was soaring through the sky. _"Soaring! Flying! There's not a star in heaven that we can't-"_ She was cut off when her Dragonborn hit a rock and died. Immediately, Jason Derulo's "Whatcha say" started playing. Erin burst into laughter, as well as Chris and Chef. _"Oh my god! I completely forgot I installed that mod! Holy shit... I gotta die more often in this game."_ The video cut to a scene of the Dragonborn fighting what appeared to be Thomas the Tank Engine. _"Choo choo motherfucker. It's your motherfucking birthday."_ The next part of the video seemed to be a compilation of Erin reacting to jump-scares in various horror games. The only one Chris recognized was Slender. Chris paused the video, still laughing.

"Her gameplay videos are pretty good. And her fanbase could give us more viewers," Chris said. "I want her in."

"Ditto," Chef said. "Plus, think about her commentary for challenges."

"True," Chris agreed. "Welcome to Total Drama Island, Erin." He set aside her application, but made a note to check out more of her videos later. After all, he wanted to see what this girl was all about.

* * *

Erin Hoffman sat in her room, equipped with her dual monitors as she worked on livestream commissions. She had enough time in her schedule to do marathon sketching, so she was currently on hour seven of at least eight or nine, depending on her mood. The music of Halestorm filled her ears through her gaming headset. At the moment, she was working on a commission of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka for some user named IEatMuffins2019. She had no idea what the hell kind of a username that is, but she didn't really care so long as she got paid.

She was adding the final touches of coloring and shading to the piece at the moment. She sang along to "Love Bites [So Do I]," knowing that her viewers couldn't hear her crappy singing. She heard the door open and took her headset off her ears.

"Hey Erin!" her twin Andrea greeted. She walked into the room and sat down on Erin's bed. "You haven't moved, I see. How many commissions today."

"I'm at about ten," Erin said. "Eleven when this one is done."

"That's my art-addicted sister." Erin rolled her eyes at her sister's antics and laughed. "So guess what came in the mail today?"

"More spam letters asking me to donate to the SPA or World Wildlife Fund?" Erin asked.

"Nope," Andrea responded, popping the 'p' very obviously. "It's a letter from the producers of Total Drama Island." Erin dropped her jaw and her tablet pen and turned around with wide eyes. She dropped her jaw as she silently gasped. Andrea sat there, smirking while holding the letter tauntingly.

"Give me the letter," Erin said. "Give it, give it, give it." Andrea laughed, stood up and handed Erin the letter. She ripped open the envelope and yanked out the letter. She gasped and squealed as she read the contents. "OH MY GOD!"

"Read it out loud!" Andrea squealed.

" _Dear Erin Hoffman,"_ Erin started. " _You have been selected as one of the contestants for Total Drama Island! Be ready to leave by noon of June 29th for your ride to TDI! Below are the following contracts that need to be signed and mailed back._ Signed Chris McLean! I'm in!" The twins squealed and hugged each other. "Oh my god. I'll need to pack my laptop and tablet. Not to mention my sketchbook, my phone, probably sunscreen because summer, and-"

"Slow down there," Andrea said. "Finish your commission stream. Then worry about packing."

"Shit!" Erin shouted. She turned to her screen and typed a message on the livestream chatbox.

ErinysArt: _Sorry guys! I just found out I got accepted into Total Drama Island! As a celebration treat, I'll do one commission on the house. Any characters, any style. Just let me finish with Gene Wilder Wonka first._

The requests came almost immediately. In the end, Erin went for the one that interested her the most. She was asked for team RWBY in the promo background. She couldn't say no to RWBY, after all.

* * *

 

Chris McLean heard his phone go off and immediately checked it. Just as he thought, ErinysArt had posted a new video on YouTube. He clicked on the link and the video appeared on his screen. In front of the camera was Erin Hoffman. She wore a grey Hogwarts t-shirt that probably came from Hot Topic. " _Hi guys! ErinysArt here! So this is actually going to be my last update for a while. Why do you ask? Well..."_ The music that plays in Legend of Zelda when Link opens up a treasure chest played and Erin bobbed her head to the song. _"I got accepted onto Total Drama Island!"_ A little box on the bottom of the screen popped up saying Achievement Unlocked: Total Drama Island Contestant. _"Some of you that follow my Tumblr and Livestream already knew about this, and you guys already sent me a ton of questions about what I'll be doing and how that will affect my videos._

_"So, question one: What does this mean for my commission? Well, you'll have to wait until I'm back from TDI. I'm trying to get as many done as I possibly can before I leave, but I can only draw so fast. Question two: What does this mean for your videos? Like I said, I won't be able to make videos while I'm gone. I need to keep my head in the game. But I will post a video about my thoughts of TDI when I am legally allowed to."_ A bit of subtext popped up saying, "goddamn contracts." Erin smiled and shrugged. _"Finally, I got a lot of questions about my upcoming Thorin Oakenshield cosplay. I'm not finished enough to show you all, but I promise that this cosplay, plus commissions, plus my continuation of the Mass Effect 3 Let's Play with Cinder will happen when I get back. Wow that's a lot. But hopefully it'll be worth. Do I think I'll win? Not really. But do I hope I will? Hell yes. So goodbye internets! See you when I am back from Total! Drama! Island!"_ Chris smirked and put his phone away. He definitely knew that she would bring in some major ratings.

"Chris! We're ready for you to film the intro!" an intern called out.

"I need a few more minutes on my hair!" Chris shouted back. He sprayed some more hairspray onto his luscious black locks and then got up. This was going to be fun.


	2. Not So Happy Campers Part I

Erin stood on the boat with her luggage as it traveled to the island where Total Drama Island was taking place. The smell of lake filled her nostrils, reminding her of summer camps from so many years ago. All the other kids would want to hike and canoe and play games while Erin was content to sit and draw nature. Perhaps she'd have opportunities to do that. Though since the show was supposed to take place at a resort, she doubted she'd get the opportunity.

She had her green, MineCraft patterned suitcase in one hand and her bag containing her laptop and art supplies in the other. She wore a dark turquoise hoodie with the word 'GEEK' across the front in big white letters, her favorite pair of black converse, and her most comfortable pair of jeans. Under the hoodie was her sister's Pikachu t-shirt. It was Andrea's good-bye and good luck gift to her twin. She tucked a strand of her messy black hair behind her ear. Of course, this messed with her thick rimmed, black glasses which she now had to adjust as well.

The island was finally in sight and Erin could feel her excitement growing. She did her tiny happy dance to get all of the excitement out of her system before getting onto the island. After all, she didn't want to look like a complete moron. As the island grew closer, she notice that there was no sign of the five star resort promised on the application. Erin decided that she might as well go with it. After all, she was probably contractually obligated to. At least now she had a chance to draw nature.

The boat came up to the dock and Erin stepped off. She looked at the dock and saw five people standing there. The first was a shorter girl with brown hair tied up with a pink scrunchie. The second was a big, muscley guy wearing a green shirt. The third was a girl with epic black and blue hair and a gothic appearance. Erin immediately liked her style. The fourth was a blonde guy wearing a cowboy hat. The last was none other than Chris McLean, who definitely looked a lot shorter in person. Erin had to admit, he was a lot more attractive in person.

"Erin!" Chris McLean greeted as she walked onto the dock. "How's it going, brah?"

"Going good," Erin replied, smiling at the scenery. "Definitely not a resort but, hey, it'll make things interesting. Just don't make me collect notes off of trees with a dying flashlight. I refuse to be kidnapped by Slenderman."

"I hope you don't mind, but we pretty much picked you because of your online fanbase," Chris said with a smirk. Erin shrugged, completely understanding why her fanbase was a contributing factor. It meant more viewers for his show, after all.

"I get that," Erin said.

"You have an online fanbase?" the gothic girl asked. Erin nodded and smiled.

"You might know me by my alias ErinysArt," Erin said. The blonde widened his eyes and smiled.

"I recognize you now!" he shouted. "I'm Geoff. I'm a huge fan of yours." Erin smiled. It was always nice to hear that someone liked her work, even though it marginally embarrassed her sometimes. She walked with her stuff to the end of the dock, where everyone else stood. The next boat pulled up to the dock not too long later.

"Everyone," Chris said. "This is Lindsay." Erin widened her eyes when the extremely hot blonde stepped off the boat. She wasn't entirely sure whether she wanted to do her or have her boobs. "Not too shabby," Chris said to the camera.

"Hi!" the blonde said. "Okay, you look so familiar." At that moment, any attraction Erin was feeling towards Lindsay immediately disappeared. If someone was attractive, Erin could appreciate that. But Erin had always been more attracted to intelligence and personality over appearance. This girl clearly had neither.

"I'm Chris McLean," Chris said. Lindsay's blue eyes were still vacant. "The host of the show."

"Oh, that's where you're from," Lindsay said. Erin arched an eyebrow at this girl. Was she for real?

"Uh, yeah," Chris said in a tone that clearly showed he was thinking the same thing as Erin. The next boat soon appeared and a black haired girl wearing a maroon crop top and short green shorts stepped off the boat. She lifted her reflective sunglasses and glared at everyone. "Heather," Chris greeted as she stomped across the dock. The brown haired girl ran up to Heather with a big smile on her face.

"Hi!" she greeted. "I'm Beth! Looks like we're your friends for the next eight weeks." Heather looked grossed out as Beth spoke, spitting a bit as she talked. Before anything else could be said, a guy blaring rock music approached on a boat. He tossed a ratty green duffle bag onto the docks and then hopped off the boat. Everything about him was intimidating, from the green mohawk to the multiple piercings to the spiked collar.

"Duncan, dude," Chris greeted.

"I don't like surprises," Duncan growled, holding up his fist.

"Yeah, your parole officer warned me about that, man," Chris said. He crossed his arms and smirked. "He also told me to give him a holler any time and have you returned to juvie."

"Damn," Erin muttered. Duncan gave her a slight glare before shrugging.

"Okay then," Duncan said. He looked at Heather and smirked, "Meet you by the campfire gorgeous."

"Drop dead you skeez," Heather snorted, her arms crossed and nose upturned. "I'm calling my parents. You _cannot_ make me stay here." Chris merely smirked and held up the contract. Erin rolled her eyes. She was right to add that subtext about contracts in her TDI announcement video. The horn of another boat honked as it sped by. Behind it was a kid with brown hair and a red tracksuit attempting to water-ski.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler!" Chris shouted. The kid fell of the skis and tumbled across the water, landing face first into the luggage. Every let out a collective gasp and wince. Erin was glad she was still holding her backpack. Her precious art supplies and laptop were safe. A giant splash came up as a piece of luggage fell into the lake, completely soaking Heather.

"Ugh!" she shouted. "My shoes!"

"Wicked wipeout, man!" Chris shouted.

"Eight and a half out of ten!" Erin shouted. Chris laughed and nodded his head.

"Oh yeah," he said. "We're gonna get a lot of good ratings with you, Erin." Erin shrugged and smiled. Tyler's fist appeared out of the pile of luggage, signaling that he was alright. As Heather stomped towards the group, dripping wet, Chris sniggered. The next boat appeared and a boy stepped off, his nose in a book. "Marco!" The brown haired boy merely raised a single hand before returning to his book. The next person to appear was a nerdy looking ginger kid. "Welcome to camp, Harold." Harold stood there silently, looking around at his surroundings.

"What's he looking at?" Beth asked.

"So you mean this show is at a crappy summer camp and not on some big stage or something?" Harold asked.

"You got it!" Chris answered with a smile.

"Yes!" Harold whisper-shouted. "That is so much more favorable to my skills." Chris looked extremely confused as Harold walked off. When Harold saw Erin, he widened his eyes in shock. "You're ErinysArt! I love your work."

"Thanks," Erin said with a smile.

"Contestant number eleven is Trent!" Chris announced as a rather attractive black haired guy walked onto the dock. In his hand was a guitar.

"Hey," Trent greeted. "Good to meet you, man. I saw you on that figure skating show. Nice work."

"Hey, thanks, man," Chris said as his fist-bumped Trent. "I _knew_ I rocked that show."

"I saw that!" Beth said. "Once of the guys dropped his partner on her head, so they got immunity that week."

"Lucky!" Harold said. "I hope I get dropped on my head."

"Me too," Lindsay said with a big smile.

"I once had a cutscene in Dragon Age: Origins where one of the NPCs was headless," Erin said. Trent looked around and frowned.

"So this is it?" he asked. "Alrighty then." The next girl to arrive was a blonde girl with a giant surfboard.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked in a voice that seemed to resonate chill.

"All right, our surfer chick, Bridgette, is here," Chris said, motioning to the blonde.

Duncan let out a scoff and said, "Nice board. This ain't Malibu, honey."

"I thought we were going to be a beach," Bridgette said.

"We are!" Chris said, pointing to the shore. Erin looked over to see a beach full of trash. A seagull with one of those plastic things that you find on six packs of soda or beer was carried off into the water by a wave.

"Great," Bridgette said with a sigh.

"All right," Chris said. "That makes-" the host was cut off when Bridgette bent down and accidentally hit him in the skull with her surfboard. "Ow! Darn it, that hurt!"

"Hey guys," Bridgette said as she came up to the rest of the campers.

"Hey," Geoff said, obviously trying to flirt. "I'm Geoff."

"What's up?" Bridgette asked. As she turned around, her surfboard swung wildly, nearly hitting Erin, Trent, Harold, and Duncan.

"Dang!" Harold shouted. "Watch the board, man."

"Hi! I'm Beth!" Beth greeted. Bridgette turned around, nearly hitting the four of them once again.

"Hey," Bridgette greeted.

"Okay, we've all met surfer girl," Heather snorted. "Can we get on with the show, please?"

"Someone missed their double cappuccino macchiato this morning," Duncan replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm. Erin let out laugh, earning herself a glare from Heather.

"Get bent," the girl sneered. The next boat appeared onto the dock. A boy with dark brown hair and an expression that clearly showed he could care less stepped off.

"Our next camper is Noah," Chris said, still rubbing his sore head.

"You got my memo about my life-threatening allergies?" Noah asked as he walked across the dock.

"I'm sure someone did," Chris replied cheerfully. Erin twisted her face in confusion and arched an eyebrow. That didn't seem too confident for Erin.

"Good," Noah replied. "Is this where we're staying?" he asked, pointing to the cruddy island.

"No, it's your mother's house and we're throwing a party," Duncan said, popping his knuckles.

"Cute," Noah said, not at all impressed with Duncan's bad-boy persona. "Nice piercings, Original. Do them yourself?"

Duncan grabbed Noah's lip and asked, "You want one?"

"No thanks," Noah replied. "Can I have my lip back please?" Duncan let go of Noah's lip. The stoic teenager deadpanned and said, "Thanks," with no enthusiasm. Noah walked over by Erin and stood next to her. He briefly narrowed his eyes, as if trying to find out where he recognized her from.

"ErinysArt," Erin said, knowing exactly how to answer his unspoken question.

"I knew that I'd seen you before," Noah said.

"What's up, y'all!?" A girl shouted from the next boat. This girl had dark skin and black hair. She wore a cream colored shirt with what appeared to be oranges on it and had a leopard-print suitcase with her. "Leshawna's in the house!" Harold dropped his jaw, as if he was immediately in love or something. "How's it going?" she asked Chris as she walked onto the dock, rolling her suitcase behind her. "Feel free to quit now and save yourselves the trouble, 'cause I came to win." She saw the only other black person there and smile. "What's up my brother?" she asked with a high five. "Give me some sugar baby!"

"I've never seen a girl like you in real life before," Harold said. Erin almost facepalmed. Was this kid for real?

"Excuse me?" Leshawna asked.

"You're real big and loud," Harold said. This time, Erin did faceplam. She shook her head and let out a sigh. That poor, stupid boy.

"What did you say to me?" Leshawna demanded. "Oh, no you didn't! You haven't seen anything yet. I'll show you big, baby!" Leshawna prepared to tackle Harold, but was held back by the other black guy and Bridgette. "You want some of this? Come on, then!" Erin sighed and walked up to Harold, grabbing him by the ear and dragging him back to the group of campers.

"Harold, it goes without saying, but you're kind of moronic," Erin grumbled as she dragged Harold across the dock.

"All right, campers," Chris said. "Settle down." Erin turned to the one person she didn't know yet.

"By the way, what's your name?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm DJ. That's Gwen, over there," he replied, pointing to the gothic girl with the awesome hair. The next boat pulled up and two people stepped off. They were dressed in identical outfits (black and white stripped tops and pink shorts) and had identical hair styles, but one girl was black and skinny while the other was white and larger. Both had black hair.

"Ladies!" Chris greeted. "Sadie, Katie, welcome to your new home for eight weeks."

"Oh my gosh," Katie said. "Sadie, look, it's a summer camp!"

"Okay," Sadie said, clapping her hands together. "I always wanted to go to summer camp." The two girls squealed and ran across the docks to the group of campers. Katie gasped when they saw Erin.

"Oh my god! It's ErinysArt!" she squealed. "Your videos are hilarious!"

"Thanks," Erin said with a smile. The next boat arrived and a kid with brown hair wearing a hoodie stepped off.

"Ezekiel, what's up man?" Chris greeted. Ezekiel pointed upwards, apparently taking the question literally.

"I think I see a bird," he said. Chris sighed and put a hand on Ezekiel's shoulder.

"Look, dude, I know you don't get out much," Chris said. "Been home-schooled your whole life, raised by freaky prairie people, just don't say much and try not to get kicked off too early. Okay?"

"Yes, sir," Ezekiel said as he marched to the other side of the dock.

"That's just.. wow," Gwen said.

"Yeah..." Erin murmured. The next boat approached the dock and a brown haired boy stepped off the boat.

"Cody," Chris greeted. "The Codester, the Codemeister."

"Dude," Cody said. "Psyched to be here, man. I see the ladies have already arrived. All right!" Erin arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Don't even try," Erin said. The next person to arrive was a very intimidating girl with black hair and a unibrow.

"Eva?" Chris greeted. "Nice. I'm glad you could make it." Cody raised his hand for a high five, but Eva opted to drop her back onto Cody's foot instead.

"Ow!" the short boy shouted. "What's in there, dumbbells?"

"Yes," Eva replied. Erin made an immediate mental note to not piss her off.

"WOOOHOOO!" a voice shouted. Erin looked up and saw a rather large boy with blonde hair and a shirt with a maple leaf. "Chris! What's happening?" Erin smiled. She immediately liked this guy. He let out a laugh and shouted, "This is awesome! WOOHOO!"

"Owen, welcome!" Chris shouted. Owen picked up Chris in a spine-crushing hug.

"Awesome to be here, man!" Owen shouted. "Yeah! Man, this is just so..."

"Awesome?" Gwen asked with a smile.

"Yeah! Awesome!" Owen shouted. "WOO! Are you gonna be on my team?"

"I sure hope so," Gwen said with no enthusiasm.

"WOOO!" Owen shouted.

"You about finished?" Chris asked in annoyance. Owen put down Chris.

"Sorry, dude," Owen said. "I'm just so psyched!" He looked over at Erin and his eyes immediately brightened even more. "Awesome! ErinysArt is here! I love your videos!"

"Thanks," Erin replied.

"Your sassy Shepard is awesome!" Owen said. "And your videos of playing Happy Wheels are hilarious!"

"Thanks!" Erin said with a smile. "Winter _is_ my favorite Shepard so far."

"Here comes Courtney!" Chris interrupted. A girl with tan skin and brown hair stepped off the next boat and smiled.

"Thank you," Courtney said. She walked up to the group of contestants and waved. "Hi! You must be the other contestants. It's really nice to meet all of you." Owen grabbed Courtney's hand and violently shook it.

"How's it going?" he asked. "Nice to meet you, O... wow." She dropped her jaw when the next boat approached the dock. Erin widened her eyes at the teenager that was approaching.

That was one nice looking guy.

Again, Erin wasn't sure if she wanted to do him or be him. She heard a loud 'thunk' and saw that Sadie had fainted. "This is Justin," Chris said. "Welcome to _Total Drama Island._ "

"Thanks Chris," Justin said. "This is great."

"Just so you know, we picked you based entirely on your looks," Chris said. "Kind of like how we picked Erin purely because of her existing fanbase."

"I can deal with that," Justin said with a shrug.

"I like your pants," Owen said. "Cause they look like they're all worn out. Did you buy them like that?"

"Uh, no," Justin said. "Just had them for a while."

"Oh, cool!" Owen replied.

"Hey, everyone," Chris shouted. "Izzy!"

"Hi, Chris!" the redheaded teenager shouted. "Hi!" She ran to the boat and attempted to jump onto the dock. Instead, she tripped on the edge of the boat and faceplanted against the side of the dock.

"Ooh! That was bad," Tyler said. Erin arched an eyebrow. This was the same guy that rolled into a pile of luggage after failing to water-ski behind his boat. Courtney ran to the other end of the dock.

"Guys," she scolded. "She could be seriously hurt."

"That felt so... good!" Izzy said. "Except for hitting my chin. This is a summer camp? That is so cool! Do you have papier-mâché here? Are we having lunch soon?"

"That's a good call!" Owen shouted.

"First thing's first," Chris said. "We need a group photo for the promos. Everyone on the end of the dock!" The herd of campers moved to the end of the dock, where they somehow made an arrangement for the group photo. Chris hopped up onto the last boat with a camera to take the photo. Erin stood next to Lindsay, making Grell's signature hand sign from Black Butler. On her other side was Marco, who almost seemed to be hiding. It was really easy to forget that Marco was there. "Ready, one, two, three... oops!" Erin frowned and sighed. "Okay, forgot the lens cap." Chris pushed a button and lowered the lens cap. "Okay, hold that pose. One, two- oh, no, wait. Memory card's full. Hang on."

"Do you need me to look at it?" Erin called out.

"Nah, brah," he said. "Just need to delete some pictures." After a few second, Chris said, "Okay, got it! Everyone say 'Wawanakwa!'"

"Wawanakwa!" Everyone shouted. The next moment, the dock collapse and sent everyone into the water. Erin let out a squeal as she was plunged into the water. She swam for the surface, holding onto a piece of driftwood.

"Okay guys," Chris said. "Dry off and meet at the campfire pit in 10." Erin swam for the shore and looked for her luggage. She knew she had a towel in there somewhere.


	3. Not So Happy Campers Part II

When Erin had dried off, she went to join the others at the fire pit. She sat on the ground next to DJ. Behind her was Marco (who she again forgot about.) Chris was already standing there, tapping his foot almost impatiently. "Now," Chris said. "Welcome to Camp Wawanakwa. This'll be your home for the next eight weeks. The campers sitting around you will be your cabin mates, your competition, and maybe even your friends. You dig?" There were collective nods amongst the crowd. "The camper who manages to stay on _Total Drama Island_ the longest without getting voted off will win 100,000 dollars."

"Excuse me," Duncan said. "What will the sleeping arrangements be? Because I'd like to request a bunk under her." He pointed at Heather, who immediately dropped her jaw.

"They're not coed, are they?" the Asian girl asked.

"No," Chris said. "Girls get one side of each cabin and dudes get the other."

"Excuse me, Kyle?" Lindsay asked. Erin arched an eyebrow at the fact that she totally got Chris's name wrong. "Can I have a cabin with a lake view since I'm the prettiest?"

"Okay, you are, but that's not really how it works here," Chris said with a deadpan. "And it's Chris."

"And I'm pretty sure the prettiest one here is Justin," Erin added. Chris didn't deny it; the host merely shrugged.

"I have to live with Sadie, or I'll die," Katie said, taking Sadie's hand.

"And I'll break out in hives," Sadie added. "It's true." Erin sighed and shook her head.

"Are you all for real?" Erin murmured to herself.

"This cannot be happening," Gwen muttered. Erin smirked, knowing she was going to like the pale girl with awesome hair.

"Aw, come on, guys," Owen said, pulling Tyler and Gwen into a hug. "It'll be fun! It's like a big sleepover."

"At least you don't have to sleep next to him," Tyler said. Over in the distance, Duncan was giving a deer a nuggie.

"Here's the deal," Chris said. "We're gonna split you into two teams. If I call your name, go stand over there. Gwen, Trent, Heather, Cody, Lindsay, Beth, Katie, Owen, Leshawna, Justin, Marco, and Noah. From this moment on, you are officially known as the Screaming Gophers."

"Yeah!" Owen shouted. "I'm a gopher!"

"Wait," Katie said. "What about Sadie?"

"The rest of you, over here," Chris said. Erin stood up, nearly falling backwards in the process, and walked over to where Chris motioned for them to go. "Geoff, Bridgette, DJ, Tyler, Sadie, Erin, Izzy, Courtney, Ezekiel, Duncan, Eva, and Harold."

"But Katie's a gopher!" Sadie whined. "I have to be a gopher."

"Sadie, is it?" Courtney said. "Come on. It'll be okay."

"This is so unfair!" Sadie wailed. "I miss you Katie!"

"I miss you, too!" Katie shouted back.

"Holy crap, you'll see each other all the time!" Erin said.

"Thank you, Erin," Chris said. Erin smiled and shrugged. It seemed that she was already getting brownie points with Chris. "You guys will officially be known as the Killer Bass!"

"That's awesome," Harold said. "It's like, amazing."

"All right, campers," Chris said. "You and your team will be on camera in all public areas during this competition." Chris motioned for the campers to follow him. They were lead to an extremely smelly outhouse. "You will also be able to share your innermost thoughts on tape with video diaries any time you want. Erin should be used to this."

"True..." Erin said. It wasn't unusual for her to vlog about her life and art.

"Let the audience at home know what you're really thinking," Chris said. "Or just get something off your chest. If anyone wants to use it now, feel free." Without even saying a word, Gwen stepped into the communal toilet. When she stepped out, Lindsay stepped in. After her was Owen. When Owen stepped out, the toilet somehow smelt worse. "All right, any questions?" Chris asked. No one said anything and Chris smiled. "Cool. Let's find your cabins." He led them through the camp and towards the rather shoddy cabins. "Gophers, you're in the east cabin. Bass, you're in the west." Erin looked over and saw their luggage waiting for them. Erin grabbed her minecraft suitcase and backpack and headed towards the west cabin.

"Are there outlets anywhere?" Lindsay asked. "I need to plug in my straightening iron."

"There are some in the communal bathrooms just across the way," Chris said.

"Crap," Erin muttered. "Is that where I'll have to charge my tablet?"

"Communal bathrooms?" Lindsay asked. "But I'm not Catholic." Erin and Chris both sighed at this blatant display of stupidity.

"Not communion, communal," Chris said.

"It means we shower together," Gwen explained. "Idiot..."

"Aw, no! Come on!" Lindsay whined.

"Excuse me, Chris? Will there be any kind of chaperones here?" Geoff asked.

"You're all at least sixteen years old. As old as a counselor in training at a regular summer camp," Chris said. "So other than myself, you'll be unsupervised. Besides, if you really want a legal adult to babysit you, just ask Erin."

"No no no," Erin said. "Don't throw me under the bus just because I'm eighteen. I still don't know how to adult yet. I can barely keep a pet cabbage alive."

"Oh yeah!" Owen said. "I forgot about that!"

"What?" Chris asked.

"She has a pet cabbage named Barkspawn," Owen said. "Didn't you watch any of her videos?"

"I watched a "best of" montage. It was enough for me to accept her to the show," Chris said. Erin frowned. That was kind of upsetting. The least he could do was actually watch some of her videos. "You've got half an hour to unpack and meet me back at the main lodge. Starting... now!" Erin took her suitcase with her and walked to the west cabin. She suddenly heard a loud, piercing scream. Erin rolled her eyes, knowing that all Lindsay saw was probably a bug. She decided to work on actually unpacking her stuff instead of worrying about a stupid bug in a cabin that wasn't even hers.

The half hour seemed to fly as Erin unpacked her stuff onto one of the lower bunks. She needed to be on a lower bunk. With her coordination, she would more than likely fall off of the top bunk. She took out her blanket and laid it on the bed, smoothing it out to look somewhat decent. Erin called this blanket her "ultimate nerd blanket." She sewed it herself using a mix of themed fabrics from Doctor Who, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and various cats. Her pillow was covered in a matching pillowcase, also sewed by Erin.

She eventually left her cabin and headed towards the main lodge. To her surprise, she was one of the first people there. It wasn't long until the rest of the campers showed up. Once everyone was accounted for. A large, intimidating black man appeared before them. He was dressed like a standard camp chef. "Listen up!" he shouted. "I serve it three times a day, and you will eat it three times a day! Grab your tray, get your food, and sit your butts down now!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Erin shouted.

"Excuse me," Beth said. "Will we be getting all the major food groups?"

"Yeah, because I get hypoglycemic real bad if I don't get enough sugar," Harold added. The chef didn't look amused at all.

"You'll get a lot of shut the heck up!" Chef shouted.

"Have a cow..." Owen muttered.

"What was that?" Chef demanded. "Come closer, fat boy. I didn't hear you."

"Uh, I didn't really say anything important," Owen said.

"I'm sure you didn't," Chef said, glaring at own. "You, scrawny kid, gimme your plate." It was Erin's turn to get food this time.

"What branch of the military were you in?" she asked. Chef arched an eyebrow.

"Navy," he said.

"Awesome!" Erin said with a smile. "My sister, Lory, is a physiotherapy officer in the navy."

"On what vessel?" Chef asked.

"The HMCS _Charlottetown_ ," Erin said. "She's a Lieutenant." Chef nodded and handed Erin her food.

"You've got my respect, little nerdy girl," he said. Erin walked away and sat down. The food looked terrible, but at least it was food. She figured she might as well eat it. It wasn't like they were going to get any better. As Erin ate her food, she swore she saw one of the sloppy joes (at least, she thought they were sloppy joes) crawl around on the floor.

"Welcome to the main lodge!" Erin turned her head and saw Chris enter the building.

"Yo, Chris, can we order a pizza?" Geoff asked. Almost immediately a knife went flying. Erin squeaked and ducked. "Or brown slop is fine... right guys?" Everyone nodded in fear. This was one chef you didn't want to cross. Chris didn't seem fazed at all.

"Your first challenge begins in one hour," Chris said.

"What do you think they'll make us do?" Katie asked.

"It's our first challenge," DJ said. "How hard could it be?"

* * *

An hour later, Erin stood with the other campers at the top of a cliff with the other campers wearing her Harley Quinn swimsuit and a pair of black shorts. They apparently had to jump off of that cliff into shark-infested waters. "Okay, your challenge today is threefold. Your first task is to jump off this one thousand food high cliff into the lake."

"Piece of cake," Bridgette said.

"If you look down, you'll see two target areas," Chris said. "The wider area represents the part of the lake that we have stocked with psychotic man-eating sharks."

"It's a good thing I'm a woman then," Erin muttered.

"Inside that area," Chris continued, "is a safe zone. That's your target area. Which we're pretty sure is shark free."

"Excuse me?" Leshawna asked.

"For each member of your team that jumps and actually survives, there will be a crate of supplies waiting below," Chris continued, ignoring Leshawna. "Inside each crate are supplies that you'll need for the second part of the challenge... building a hot tub. The team with the best one gets to have a wicked hot-tub party tonight. The losers will be sending someone home. Let's see... Killer bass, you're up first!"

"Oh, wow," Bridgette said. "So who wants to go first?" There was collective silence amongst the group.

"Don't sweat it guys," Owen said. "I hear that these shows always make the interns test the stunts first to make sure it's survivable."

"So," Eva asked. "Who's first?" Erin froze and sighed. They'd all have to do it eventually. She moved up and handed her glasses to Chris.

"If I die, I leave my domain name to my twin," Erin said. She took a breath and sprinted. "LONG LIVE THE KING!" she shouted. She scream as she fell down the incredible height, praying she landed in the center. "OH MY JESUS WHY DID I DO THIS!?" She finally landed in the water with a loud splash. When she reached the surface, she checked around her to make sure that she had made it in the center. She squinted, as pretty much everything around her was blurry, and was pretty sure she saw a ring of buoys around her. "Holy shit I'm alive! I'm alive!"

"No swearing!" she heard Chris shout. "It costs money to bleep you!"

"SORRY!" Erin shouted back.

"BY THE WAY, NICE LION KING REFERENCE!" Chris shouted back. "SWIM TO THE SHORE AND WAIT FOR THE OTHER CONTESTANTS!"

"OKAY!" Erin shouted. She swam for the shoreline, trying her hardest to watch for the campers jumping. The next to jump was apparently Marco. Erin still had no idea how it was so easy to forget that kid existed. Next was Bridgette, who dived perfectly into the water. She was picked up by a boat, unlike Erin. "How come she gets a boat!?"

"Because ratings!" Chris replied.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Erin shouted.

"Good!" Chris replied. Erin rolled her eyes as Bridgette came to the shore. The next to go was Tyler, who landed crotch-first on a buoy. Erin winced, knowing that it probably hurt him more than a little. Geoff followed suit, yelling cheers as he jumped off the cliff. Eva was next, followed by Duncan, who made no sound as he jumped. From what it looked like, DJ chickened out of jumping. Ezekiel was the next to take the dive. He ended up hitting the side of the cliff and spinning into the target. When DJ reached the shoreline, he handed Erin her glasses. "YOU'RE WELCOME!" Chris shouted as Erin put them on. Next was Harold, who decided to jump in a split. When he hit the water, he screaming in pain. It must have felt like a belly flop on your balls... poor guy. Even the sharks winced.

Next was Courtney, who apparently chickened out. The last two to go were Katie and Sadie. This confused Erin. Wasn't Katie a gopher? They hit the water together and were picked up by a boat. "That's all of us," Erin said. "I guess Katie convinced Izzy to switch with her."

"I guess," Duncan said. The Gophers were now jumping. Heather went first, though clearly not by choice. She was thrown off the cliff by Leshawna.

"Leshawna! You are so dead!" Heather shouted.

"I threw you into the safe zone, didn't I?" Leshawna shouted back. She was the next to jump and landed in the safe circle with Heather. Lindsay followed suit, flailing about as she fell down the cliff. Gwen was next, followed by Cody and Izzy (who seemed to be enjoying the jump). Justin dived in silently. When he landed outside the safe zone, all he had to do was smile at the sharks. They were immediately enamored by the good-looking teen and ended up carrying him to shore.

"Damn," Erin muttered. Beth appeared to have chickened out. Trent was the next jump, choosing to charge off the cliff screaming. Noah followed, also screaming as he fell.

"Okay campers!" Chris shouted. "There's only one person left. Gophers need this jump for the win! No pressure dude. Okay, there's pressure!" The Gophers yelled and cheered for Owen to jump. Finally, Owen jumped, screaming the entire way down. When he landed, he made a huge tidal wave. It soaked everyone, beached the sharks, and crashed the boat that apparently Chef was driving.

"Yes!" Owen shouted. "Yeah! Who's the man!?" The Gophers cheered, reveling in their victory. Erin sighed, disappointed at the loss. Yet she wasn't totally disappointed. At least everyone lived.

"The winners, the Screaming Gophers!" Chris shouted through a megaphone.

"That was awesome, dude," Trent said. Owen frowned, not moving to get out of the water. "What's wrong?"

"I, uh, think I lost my bathing suit," Owen said. Erin widened her eyes and immediately turned away.

"Owen, get your bathing suit back on! The rest of you can go change and do some video diaries in the confessional!" Chris shouted. Erin nodded and walked over to the confessional. Erin was the first to get inside the confessional.

"Alright," Erin said. "So that was completely and utterly terrifying. Like, I though the Lion King reference would ease my nerves about jumping off a thousand foot cliff. Apparently not. I legit thought I was going to die. Like, die more than the Couslands in Dragon Age: Origins. And that's not a spoiler because it happens really early in the game. I'm glad we lived, though. Living is good. I like living. Yay for living." Erin got up and left the confessional. She didn't really need to say any more for now. Perhaps after the challenge.


	4. Not So Happy Campers Part III

When Erin changed back into her hoodie and jeans, she met with her team-mates by the crates of supplies they won from the challenge. While the Gophers had carts to help move their stuff, the Bass had to do without. Erin moved her crate my repeatedly charging at it. Was it tiring? Yes. But at least the crate moved a couple of feet with each charge. "Ow!" Courtney squeaked. "I think I just got a splinter!" Erin narrowed her eyes at the girl, but opted not to say anything. Instead, Erin just rammed into her crate another time, moving it a couple more feet.

"Shut up and pick up your crate," Eva snapped. "Chicken."

"Hey! I'm the only one here with C.I.T camping experience here," Courtney said. "You need me!"

"Not really!" Erin shouted, ramming into her crate again. "This is worse than the Impossible Game!"

"Erin!" She looked to her left and saw Chris standing there laughing. "Loving your tactics. You repeatedly running into a wooden crate is gonna be great for ratings!"

"Okay, every time you've talked to me it's been about how I'm going to bring ratings," Erin snapped, charging at her crate again. "Oh my god this is exhausting. Probably a shitty tactic, but whatever!" She paused and clasped her hands over her mouth when she realized she swore. "Sorry!" Chris sighed and shook his head.

"You're lucky you're cute," Chris grumbled. "I wouldn't be so forgiving otherwise." Erin paused and blushed slightly. It was just in Erin's nature to get flustered whenever she was complimented. I didn't matter who did it. Chris ran off, probably to check on the other team.

"I gotta take a wizz," Tyler said.

"Hurry up, we're already behind," Eva growled.

"I have to go too!" Katie said.

"Oh my god, like, me too!" Sadie said, shocked that they had the same idea. It seemed like the two always had the same ideas. Erin slumped against her crate, enjoying the small break they had. Courtney tried to swat a bug away and ended up hitting herself in the face. Erin sat there, trying not to laugh. Sadie and Katie eventually returned a few minutes later.

"All better?" Eva asked.

"Yep!" Katie said with a smile.

"Can we go now?" Courtney asked. "I think my eye is swelling up."

"That tends to happen when you smack it really hard," Erin said as she stood up. "Alrighty then... THIS IS SPARTA!" Erin kicked the crate. It didn't move very far, but at least she got a pop culture reference in. She returned to her previous method of repeatedly running to the crate. They kept trudging forwards. Sadie and Katie were beginning to complain about being itchy. Erin ignored it; it was probably just an exaggeration.

Chris suddenly appeared on a four-wheeler. "You guys are way behind the other team," he said. "Like, _way_ behind. What's the problem?"

"Their butts are itchy and Courtney punched herself in the face," Erin said, charging at the crate again. Chris turned around and saw Courtney and her swollen, throbbing eyes. He screamed and stared at her eye with a dropped jaw.

"Oh my boxers, that's bad," he said.

"I know, right?" Erin said.

"Did you guys squat down when you peed in the woods?" Bridgette asked.

"Yeah..." Katie said.

"Did you happen to notice what kind of plants you were squatting over?" Bridgette asked again. Erin widened her eyes when she realized what Bridgette was getting at.

"I swear to god if you describe what I think you're going to describe..." Erin muttered.

"They were kind of oval shaped and green and all over the place," Sadie said.

"Were they low to the ground and about this big?" Bridgette asked.

"Three leaves?" Erin asked. The two besties nodded and both Bridgette and Erin sighed.

"You guys squatted over poison ivy," Bridgette told them.

"What do we do!?" Katie screamed. The two girls began panicking while Chris laughed at them.

"Leaves of three, let it be. I don't even go camping and I know that!" Erin shouted, running into her crate again. "This is actually starting to get painful..."

"Then stop," Chris told her. "The last thing we need is for your pretty face to end up like Courtney's."

"It's so fun, though," Erin said, ramming into her crate for the umpteenth time. Katie and Sadie continued to scream as they rubbed their butts across the sand. Chris turned his attention to the itchy girls and continued laugh.

"That's awesome!" Chris laughed. "Between the itchy butts, Courtney's face, and Erin repeatedly charging into a wooden crate, we're gonna get great ratings." He sped off on the four-wheeler, cackling the entire way. About twenty minutes later, the Killer Bass finally got to the campsite.

"Oh sweet Jesus we're here," Erin breathed out as she rammed into the crate one last time.

"Hey, what's up guys?" Trent asked the Bass.

"Hey, aren't you missing a couple of white girls?" Leshawna asked. Everyone paused and looked down. As if they were actually going to admit that their team-mates peed on poison ivy.

"They're getting a drink," Courtney said.

"Yeah," Harold snickered. "If they drink with their butts." Ezekiel let out a really dorky sounding laugh.

"That's funny," the prairie boy laughed. Leshawna dropped her jaw, probably because she finally saw Courtney's eye.

"Oh!" Leshawna exclaimed. "What happened to your eye, girl?"

"Nothing," Courtney squeaked out. "Just an allergy."

"If you're allergic to your own fist, that is," Erin muttered under her breath. Geoff climbed on top of the crates they had just shoved to the campsite.

"All right dudes, we can do this!" Geoff shouted. Erin looked to her left and saw Ezekiel picking his nose. Erin crinkled her nose and shook her head. The least he could do was wait until no one was looking.

"Okay, look guys," Courtney said. "We have a hot tub to complete and we need a project manager. Since I've actually been a C.I.T before, I'm electing myself. Any objections?"

"That sounds a lot like a dictatorship," Erin said. "Like, I don't want to lead, you can have it, but I just want to make known that it sounds a lot like a dictatorship." Courtney narrowed her one remaining eye at Erin who raised her hands in a 'don't shoot the messenger' kind of way.

"Where do we begin, Cyclops?" Duncan asked.

"Open the crates," Courtney ordered. "Bridgette, go find those itchy girls. We need all the help we can get. Erin, you're an artist. Draw up schematics for the hot tub so we can know what we're doing."

"I'm an artist, not an architect," Erin said. "I can't draw plans for building things. Besides, I have nothing to draw with." Courtney sighed and shook her head.

"Fine, open the crates then," Courtney said. For the next two hours, the two teams labored away at their hot tubs. The longer the building went, the more obvious it was that the Screaming Gophers had their shit together as a team. Amongst the Bass, people argued and fought for hammers and planks of wood. It was Erin who eventually said 'fuck it, we're going to lose' and got duct tape. They least they could do was make sure the hot tub stayed together. When the hot tubs were done, Chris appeared and stood between the two. He inspected the Gopher's hot tub first.

"This is an awesome hot tub," Chris said. The Gophers cheered, celebrating their success. When Chris came to their Killer Bass's hot tub, all it took was one poke for the duct tape seal to break and spray him with water. One of the sea gulls with the plastic things around its neck appeared and sat in the hot tub. Suddenly, the entire hot tub collapsed, spilling water and wood everywhere. "Well, I think we have a winner here. The Screaming Gophers!" The Gophers all cheered as the Killer Bass looked down, dejected with their first loss. Erin wasn't entirely sure how long the Bass were going to make it at this rate. "Gophers, you're safe from elimination and you get to rock this awesome hot tub for the rest of the summer. Bonus!" Chris turned to the Killer Bass with a obviously fake frown. "Killer Bass, what can I say? Sucks to be you right now. I'll see your sorry butts at the bonfire tonight."

"Can't wait," Erin muttered, her tone obviously sarcastic.

"Everyone, get your butts to the main lodge for dinner," Chris shouted. "Bass, report to the bonfire at ten." The campers walked over to the main lodge, clearly not excited about whatever unidentifiable slop they were going to get for dinner. They walked inside, where Chef was already waiting. They got into an unorganized line and took a bowl of the white mush that no one could identify as any form of actual food. Erin wasn't even sure what it was supposed to be. Erin sat down with the Bass. She took a place between DJ and Duncan.

"So, uh, what do we do now?" Katie asked.

"We have to figure out who we're going to vote off," Courtney said.

"Well, I think it should be Princess or the brick house here," Duncan said.

"What!?" Courtney squeaked. "Why?"

"Because," Duncan said. "Unless I'm mistaken, you two are the only one wearing chicken hats. And if we ever have to lift a truck, I like our odds with the big guy."

"True," Erin said. "Courtney, you did decide not to jump because you underestimated our opponents. We would have had an tie for the cliff jumping portion of the challenge if you had just jumped."

"You guys need me!" Courtney said. "I'm the only one-"

"I swear to God, if you say that you're the only one here with C.I.T experience I'm going to punch your face in the face," Erin said, taking a bite of her white mush.

"So who would you pick?" Bridgette asked.

"What about him?" Courtney asked, pointing at Tyler.

"NO!" Erin arched an eyebrow as Lindsay stood up and shouted. "I-I mean, no salt. There's no salt on the table, bummer."

"At least he jumped off the cliff, chicken wing," Duncan snorted.

"Shut up!" Courtney snapped.

"Okay," Geoff said calmly. "Let's just chill out. This is getting way to heavy."

"I agree," Erin said. "Ultimately, it'll be up to each of us to decide who we want to vote off."

"I've had enough prison food for one day," Duncan said. "I'm gonna go have a nap." Duncan got up and walked away.

"You can't do that!" Courtney shouted. "We haven't decided who's going yet."

"Well I just don't get why we lost," Ezekiel said. "They're the ones that have six girls." Erin narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. He did _NOT_ just say that. She got up and stomped towards Ezekiel. Bridgette and Eva had the same idea.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bridgette growled.

"Yeah, homeschool," Eva snarled. "Enlighten us."

"Well, guys are much stronger and better at sports that girls are," Ezekiel said, as if it were common knowledge.

"Oh snap," Geoff said. "You did not just say that."

"He fucking did," Erin growled.

"My dad told me to look out for the girls here," Ezekiel said. "And help them in case they can't keep up." Eva grabbed Ezekiel by the throat and lifted him into the air.

"Still think we need your help keeping up?" Eva threatened.

"Uh, not really," Ezekiel gasped out.

"Okay, guys, let's give him a break," Geoff said, trying to diffuse the situation. "I mean, at least he doesn't think that guys are smarter than girls."

"But they are," Ezekiel said. Erin deadpanned and grabbed her bowl of food. She tipped over the bowl and dumped the unidentifiable contents onto Ezekiel's head.

"If you need me," Erin said. "I'll be in the cabin sketching. I'm going to try and sketch pictures of nature, but it will more than likely end up being pictures of me murdering Ezekiel in various R-rated fashions. Like, Game of Thrones-esque torture and murder. See ya."

"Put me in there!" Eva shouted as Erin left the main lodge. It went without saying, but Erin was pretty sure she knew who she (and the other girls) would be voting off tonight. She couldn't stand sexist shitheads like Ezekiel. She dealt with plenty of misogynistic assholes on the internet who said she was a fake nerd or fake gamer and was just using YouTube to get attention. She didn't want to be on a team with such an asshole for another minute.

* * *

It was ten o'clock now.

Erin sat on her favored spot on the ground as the rest of the campers arrived. Chris was standing in front of the already lit bonfire with a large plate of marshmallows on top of a oil drum. Paper lanterns were hung in the air and tiki torches surrounded the elimination area. The entire area now had a dark orange glow to it. It almost fit the atmosphere of someone going home. "Dude," Duncan said. "You've got a lot to learn about the real world."

"Killer bass," Chris said, picking up the tray of marshmallows. "At camp, marshmallows represent a tasty treat that you enjoy roasting by the fire."

"It could also represent the giant snowman from _Frozen,"_ Erin said. Chris arched an eyebrow at Erin for her interruption. "Sorry."

"Thank you," Chris said. "At this camp, marshmallows represent life. You've all cast your votes and made your decision. There are only eleven marshmallows on this plate. When I call your name, come up and claim your marshmallow. The camper who does not receive a marshmallow tonight must immediately return to the Dock of Shame to catch the Boat of Losers. That means you're out of the contest. And you can't come back... _ever._ " The Killer Bass all exchanged looks. "The first marshmallow goes to... Geoff." Geoff ran up and watched as Chris placed the marshmallow on his stick. "Tyler. Katie. Bridgette. Erin." Erin smiled and walked up to receive her marshmallow. She was safe until the next challenge. Hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult. "DJ. Harold. Sadie. Duncan." The only two left sitting now were Ezekiel and Courtney... and Erin had a pretty good idea of who would be going home this week.

"Campers," Chris said. "This is the final marshmallow of the evening." There was a long, dramatic silence for many moments. Ezekiel was practically shaking while Courtney merely looked worried. "Courtney," he finally said, picking up the marshmallow. Courtney let out a sigh of relief and ran up to grab her marshmallow. "Can't say I'm shocked. I saw you picking your nose, dude. Not cool." Chris walked up to Ezekiel, who was looking down sadly. If he hadn't been such a misogynistic dick, Erin would have felt sorry for the prairie boy. "Dock of Shame is that way, bro." Ezekiel got up and started walking towards the Dock of Shame. "The rest of you, enjoy your marshmallows. You're all safe for tonight." Erin plopped her marshmallow into her mouth, chewing on the sugary goodness.

"I'm gonna do some sketching back in the cabin," Erin said. "If any of you have requests, let me know. I'm mostly just trying to keep in practice."

"Good to know," Duncan said, eating his marshmallow. "I might just take you up on that later."

"I know I need to do a sketch of Chris at some point," Erin said. "If for no other reason than to get into his good graces."

"Smart," Duncan said. "I'll walk with you. I'm heading back anyway, so I might as well."

"Cool, thanks," Erin said. The two started to walk back to the campsite. "So what would you want me to draw?"

"I don't know," Duncan said. "Something cool, like a skull. Bonus points if it's on fire."

"Oh, I can do that," Erin said. "Color or not?"

"Color," Duncan said. "You're not charging me, are you?"

"Nah," Erin said. "I'll do freebies for the other campers. Now if Chris wants a sketch... I'm totally charging. Well, except for the one to get in his favor. But other than that one, he's paying me if he wants a sketch." Duncan started laughing with Erin. She could tell this as going to be a beautiful friendship.

Total Drama Island was going to both suck and rule.


	5. The Big Sleep Part I

Erin was woken up the next morning by an extremely loud air horn sound. She sprung up, flailing around in her blanket and falling to the floor. Thank god she chose a lower bunk. Outside the open window, she heard Leshawna shout, "It's seven in the morning! Do I look like a farmer to you!?" Erin rolled her eyes as the rest of the Killer Bass ladies woke up.

"Nice landing, Erin," Bridgette said with a laugh. Erin merely shrugged and untangled herself from her blankets.

"Everyone get up and get dressed! I want you all out here in fifteen!" Chris shouted through a megaphone. Erin sighed and took off her corpse bride pajama top, revealing her black tank top underneath. She took a t-shirt with Loki on it out of her suitcase and slipped in on over her head. She then put on her usual GEEK hoodie. She rather liked that hoodie. Part of her considered keeping her black and white plaid pajama bottoms on, but she decided that she might as well change into her jeans. It almost felt like a locker room, but it didn't seem like any of the girls really cared about changing in front of other girls.

Erin tied the shoelaces of her sneakers and then walked outside. Most of the other campers were already dressed and outside. Some of them were yawning from sleepiness while others seemed perfectly awake. Erin saw that Eva almost bit Cody's arm off for trying to touch her mp3 player. Not that Erin really blamed Eva; she would do that if someone tried to take her tunes.

"Morning!" Chris greeted with his typical smile. "Hope you slept well."

"Hi, Chris," Heather greeted back almost flirtily. "You look really buff in those shorts." Erin rolled her eyes. If Heather weren't such an evil bitch monster from hell, Erin could almost see herself going for her.

"I know," Chris said, winking back. Erin let out a scoff, earning her a glare from the host. "Okay, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute."

"Oh, excuse me," Owen said. "I don't know if that's enough time for me to eat breakfast."

"Oh you'll get your breakfast, Owen," Chris said. "Right after you complete your 20 kilometer run around the lake."

"Oh, so you're funny now?" Eva growled. She stalked towards Chris, fists at the read. She was held back by Trent, DJ, and Duncan."You know what I think would be funny-"

"Eva! Try to control your temper!" Courtney hissed.

"For once C.I.T has a valid point," Erin said, placing a hand on Eva's shoulder. "So please don't piss off the guy that gives out and judges the challenges."

"Listening to Erin," Chris said with a smirk. "She gets what's up."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Eva snapped.

"A little," Chris said. "You have thirty seconds." Eva let out a huff and turned around, prepare to run this 20k. Erin let out a breath and started to do some stretching. Out of the corner of her eye, she could swear she saw Chris checking her out, but she was ninety percent sure it was her imagination looking too far into things. "Okay runners! On your marks, get set, go!"

Erin took off at a slower jog while most of the other campers started sprinting. If this was going to be 20 kilometers, she was going to save her energy for the finish line when everyone else was tired. She knew her own stamina well enough. Erin never lingered besides any of the other campers. She truly didn't care about getting overly involved in a bunch of petty drama, even if the show _was_ called Total Drama Island. At one point, Chris drove by on a moped with a megaphone shouting, "Pick it up people! If you're not back by dinnertime, you don't eat!"

"Nothing new for me," Erin shouted back with a smirk as she jogged. Chris gave her a confused and concerned look. "What? I forget to eat sometimes."

"That's not really a good thing," Chris said.

"I know," Erin replied. Chris merely shrugged before zooming away on the moped.

"Ugh, I hate him so much," Heather growled. Erin shrugged and kept jogging.

* * *

A few hours later, Erin was sprinting into the dining hall. She fell to the floor, breathing heavily. She hated most physically strenuous activities, but she hated running most of all. "Why does running have to be a thing?"

"Because it is," Chris said. Erin looked up and saw him standing over her. He extended a hand with an arched eyebrow. She groaned and took it, seeing that she probably wasn't going to be standing up on her own. Her legs felt to exhausted. She was helped up and almost immediately started to fall back down. Chris caught her with his other arm and helped her to the nearest table.

"Thanks," Erin said. "You're acting strangely nice for a guy who usually acts like a dick."

"I'll consider that a compliment," Chris said with a laugh as he walked away. He picked up a nail file on another table and began to file his nails. Erin stayed in a state of semi-consciousness until Owen burst through the door carrying Noah.

"Clear a table, stat!" Owen shouted.

"Oh!" Leshawna groaned as she fell to her knees. "We made it." Noah was taken to another table, where Owen immediately started performing CPR. A few seconds later, a panting Harold entered the dining hall.

"What took you so long?" Courtney snapped. "We just lost the challenge!"

"I think I'm having heart palpitations," Harold.

"Chris, I'm sorry for my the language I'm going to use," Erin said, forcing herself to sit up. "Courtney, fuck the challenge. We're exhausted and Harold might be dying. You're a C.I.T, right? Do something camp counselor-y and give Noah CPR. Owen looks like he's doing it wrong." Chris let out a loud laugh and shook his head.

"I'll forgive you for the language because that was brilliant," Chris said. "But this wasn't the challenge." Erin dropped her jaw and glared at Chris.

"First of all, screw you," Erin said. "And second of all, if this wasn't the challenge, what is?"

"Glad you asked," Chris said. He walked over to a long, purple curtain and made a sweeping motion as it was pulled back. "Who's hungry?" Erin widened her eyes at the sight of actual, real food. She liked Chef well enough, but his cooking was straight up nasty. She felt her mouth water slightly as the aroma a turkey and dinner rolls wafted through the room. "Dig in!"

It was as if every had renewed energy based on how fast people ran to the buffet. Erin grabbed a plate and put a gigantic pile of mashed potatoes on her plate and a few slices of turkey. Within twenty minutes, the entire buffet was gone and all the campers were lying around, groaning from the stomach aches they now had from eating so much, but also from how good this food was compared to the crap they'd been eating for the past week. When she saw Chris reaching for a megaphone, she moaned, "Don't you dare, McLean-"

"Alright campers!" Chris shouted through the megaphone before she could finish. Erin sat up and glared at Chris, tensing her jaw. "Time for part two of the challenge!"

"This was part one?" Erin asked.

"I thought eating was the second part," Owen said, his face covered in the remains of food.

"What more do you want from us?" Gwen asked.

"Weird goth girl is right," Heather groaned. "Haven't we been through enough."

"Hmm, let me think about that," Chris said, pretending to think. "Nope! It's time for the Awake-a-thon."

"Oh mother-"

"Don't finish that Erin," Chris said with a laugh. Erin shut her mouth and sighed.

"The what-a-thon?" Owen asked.

"Don't worry, this is an easy one," Chris said, hopping down from the buffet table he was standing on. "The team with the last camper standing gets invincibility."

"So what you're saying is that the 20k run and the turkey eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?" Gwen asked.

"Makes sense..." Erin muttered. "Make the challenge as hard as possible for maximum ratings. Or least that's the reasoning I know you're going to give."

"Correctamundo!" Chris shouted with a devilish smirk. "Move! Move! Move!" Erin walked sluggishly out of the dining hall, fully intent on getting her sketchbook and her bag of art supplies. If she was going to have to stay awake for as long as possible, she was going to be productive about it. When she headed towards the cabin to get her art stuff, she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She turned around to see Chris. "What are you doing?" He asked in an almost childlike manner.

"Getting my art supplies. Might as well be productive," Erin said.

"Can't do that," Chris said. Erin sighed and shook her head.

"I'll do a sketch of you for free. In color," she said. Chris pondered this for a second. "I'll make it look good, don't worry."

"Okay, I'll allow it," he said. Erin nodded and ran into the cabin to grab her bag of art supplies. Hopefully her art would be up to Chris's standards.

* * *

Twelve hours later, Erin was still awake but still hadn't done the sketch of Chris. But she had done sketches of Rapunzel from Tangled, Leliana and Morrigan from Dragon Age, and one of her Shepards. Owen was dancing awkwardly around the firepit in an attempt to stay awake. "Stay awake for twelve hours? I can do that in my sleep," Owen said. He let out one of his signature, "Woohoos!"

"Stay awake in your sleep?" Erin asked. "You're missing the point." Not even a second later, Owen fell down, fast asleep.

"This is the most boring thing I have ever done in my entire life," Gwen said with a yawn.

Trent yawned and said, "Could be way worse."

"Oh yeah? How?" Gwen asked.

"That was a horrible question to ask," Erin said as she continued to work on her sketch of Mother Gothel.

"I could be stuck here without you to talk to," Trent said with a smile. Erin arched and eyebrow and let out a knowing smirk. They were totally smitten with each other. She just wondered how long until they fessed up. Erin knew she was probably now the first for the Gwen/Trent shipping train. Suddenly, Lindsay started to do a headstand in front of them.

"What are you doing?" Gwen asked.

"Trying to get the blood to rush to my head," Lindsay said, struggling to keep her balance. "I think it's working."

"Can I try?" Beth asked.

"Sure!" Lindsay responded.

"Lindsay, Beth, can I talk to you for a second?" Heather called out. She walked away from the group, Lindsay and Beth getting off their heads and following her. Erin narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. It seemed that the alliances were already starting. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Chris standing there.

"So where's my sketch?" Chris asked with a smirk.

"Haven't done it yet," Erin said. "You weren't here and I need your face as a reference or I'll fu- uh, mess it up."

"Nice save," he said with a laugh. "Well I'm here now. Get to it!" Erin rolled her eyes and flipped to a clean page in her sketchbook. She took a pencil from her bag and started sketching the outline of Chris's head.

She would look up occasionally at Chris, who was leaning casually against a barrel of what looked like toxic waste. She needed to please the "holier than thou" host, after all. "And there goes Marco!" Chris suddenly shouted. Erin looked over to her left to see Marco, the kid who she always forgot existed, lying on the ground with his face in a book. Why did she always forget Marco was a contestant?

Erin had no idea how long had passed; she was completely absorbed in her artwork, even if it was a picture of Chris. Still, she couldn't deny that he was an attractive human being, which was made more evident to her as she spent time studying his face for this drawing. He had nice facial symmetry. "No color yet?" She suddenly heard a voice asked her. She looked up to see Chris observing the sketch.

"I wanna get the actual sketch looking good before I add color," Erin said. She looked around, just now noticing that it was sunset. She noticed that Noah, Bridgette, and Izzy were fast asleep on the ground now. "How long has it been?"

"Almost twenty-two hours," Chris said. "You've been working for about two and a half."

"That's typically how I operate," Erin said. "I either spend forty minutes on a sketch or like six hours. Since I want this to be good..."

"It is looking pretty good so far, though," Chris said. "Pretty close to realistic."

"That's my aim," Erin said. In truth, she did refine some of his features to make him look better. "I feel like I should refine it more, but I also feel like I should start adding color."

"Start with the color," Chris said. "It looks good." Erin shrugged and nodded, putting her pencil away and taking out some of her colored pencils. She didn't have her really good set with her, but this set would ultimately do. She'd just need to be creative with blending. Again, she was completely absorbed in her artwork. Everything around her faded as she took out a flesh-toned pencil and started with the base colors. She'd already marked where she would add highlights and shadows. On another piece of paper, she'd even listed what colors she'd use for what.

"Hey, Erin." She looked up and saw Duncan come sit down next to her. He frowned when he saw the sketch of Chris. "Already doing the kiss up sketch?"

"Yep," Erin said. "Drawing helps me stay awake. But honestly, my wrist is started to bug me now. Not sure how much longer I can stay conscious. I'm actually really liking how this is turning out."

"It does look pretty good," Duncan agreed, albeit very reluctantly. Erin nodded and went back to work. That short conversation seemed to satiate Duncan, as he started to do something else to stay up. She switched from the flesh tone colors to her shades of black and grey. She had more than enough experience to color black hair correctly; especially since she practice with self-portraits and drawings of Blake Belladonna from RWBY.

When she had finished coloring in the hair, she heard Chris shout, "Congratulations, campers! You've reached the twenty-four hour mark!"

"Party hard," Erin said as she kept drawing, not bothering to look up at Chris.

"Time to take things up a notch," he continued, ignoring Erin. Suddenly Erin saw something large, fluffy, and pink approach. She looked up and widened her eyes, seeing Chef in a pink sheep suit.

"I cannot unsee this," Erin said, blinking repeated to process what she was witnessing. She took out another piece of paper and sketched a very quick, messy outline. She was going to have to draw that at some point. She just needed an outline first.

"Fairy tales!" Chris shouted as he uncovered a large pile of children's story books.

"Oh he's _not_ serious," Gwen said in a deadpan. Chef ran a finger across the little harp he was carrying and Chris let out a giggle. Chef growled and Chris rolled his eyes.

"Once upon a time," Chris started in a very dull monotone, "There was inside this boring kingdom a boring village. And inside this boring, sleepy village filled with very boring children who did very boring things..."

So he was going to play it like that, huh? Erin tried to tune out the sound of Chris's voice as she went back to coloring in that sketch of him. She ran a teal colored pencil across the shirt, marking the highlights first. She ignored the sounds of yawning and other campers falling asleep. She stayed up for days at a time at least once a month. She could totally win this stupid Awake-a-thon.

"I'm almost insulted. You totally didn't listen to my story, brah."

Erin looked up again and saw Chris. "No offense, dude," Erin said, "But the story sucked ass."

"That's fair," Chris said. "I see colors. You almost done?"

"A few more highlights and shading and I should be," Erin said. She used her index finger to do some of the blending on his shirt to make the shadows and highlights meld into the base colors. "And that should be it. I can do some more editing if you want." Chris picked up the sketch and raised his eyebrows, nodding at the image.

"This is like ridiculously good," Chris said. "Like, crazy good. You're an art major, right?"

"Animation and video game design," Erin said.

"Well you're definitely on the right track," he said. "Thanks, brah."

"No prob," Erin said. "I'll even throw in the one of Chef in that sheep costume if you want. That was too good not to make a sketch of."

"You finished it?" Chris asked. Erin laughed and shook her head.

"Not yet. I just have an outline. I'll do details and colors in sec," Erin said. "I need to rest my wrist. It's legit murdering me."

"Well don't die," Chris said with a laugh. "It's bad for your health." Erin rolled her eyes and gave him a quick wave as he walked off, most likely going to sleep for the night.

* * *

Later into the night, Erin was still working on her sketching marathon. Not only had she gotten that sketch of Chef done, but she also sketched some of the other campers. Duncan was game for a second sketch, who then got Gwen to pose for one, followed by Geoff, Leshawna, DJ, and even Heather. Erin figured she might as well stroke Heather's ego and get on her good side. She was working on an image of Courtney when Chef reappeared.

But this time he was wearing a ballerina costume.

Erin widened her eyes in shock and dropped her jaw. "I cannot unsee this either." She flipped to a clean page in her sketchbook and tried to take out an outline as fast as she possibly could. This had to become a sketch. Plus, she figured Chris would find it hilarious. Chef danced around, throwing sparkles of unknown origin at the various campers. As the sparkles hit some of the campers, they fell asleep. "What the ever living flying fuck," Erin said. She suddenly heard a loud crash and saw that the tree DJ had decided to tie himself to had fallen down.

"Timber!" Gwen said with a laugh.

"No kidding," Erin added. She kept drawing people to keep the time passing and keep her mind occupied. She didn't even realize that they'd hit the forty-hour mark until Lindsay and Beth both passed out. The Gophers had four left while the Bass had five.

Erin looked up and smiled when she saw Gwen and Trent talking to each other. Oh yeah, she was definitely on that shipping train. However, her eyes widened with absolute disgust when she saw that Owen was sleepwalking around them... in the nude. "Nope!" Erin shouted as she looked back down at the now finished drawing of Courtney. She flipped a page and started to draw Garrus Vakarian from Mass Effect. "Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. I cannot unsee this. Nope. Nope. Nope." Erin tried to ignore the lingering image of a naked Owen, shoving it out of her mind.

It had now been fifty-one hours. At least, that was what the camera men told the remaining campers. She had been awake for exactly two days and three hours. The most Erin had stayed up was about four days. She really hoped she could break her record and win this challenge. "Look at him, he's like a statue!" Gwen said. Erin looked over and saw her pointing at Justin. "He hasn't moved in over fifty hours." Erin narrowed her eyes... come to think of it, Justin's eyes didn't look very realistic right now... "Hello!" Gwen shouted while Trent yipped in the background. "Amazing. Look at the concentration."

"Wait a second," Erin murmured. She stood up and shoved Justin hard on the shoulder. He real eyes opened up, revealing that he had painted on his eyelids.

"His eyelids are painted!" Eva shouted.

"I've seen better painting in the art class for non-majors," Erin said.

"Shut up!" Erin saw Chris run past her and towards Justin. "Oh I've gotta see this!" Chris observed Justin's eyes. Justin smiled, as if he hoped Chris would be forgiving. "That is so cool! Buuuut you're still out, dude." Justin frowned as Chris walked away. He turned to Erin and pointed at her. "You finish that sketch of Chef?"

"As a ballerina and as a pink sheeplet," Erin said. "They're sitting on the log."

"Sweet!" Chris said. He walked over to said log and picked up the two sketches, laughing at both of them. "These are great! I'm obviously going to hide them from Chef, but these are fantastic!"

"Cool," Erin said with a yawn. "Damn... I'm actually starting to get tired."

"Well don't fall asleep," Chris said tauntingly. "Ah, look at the dark night sky. So peaceful. So tranquil."

"I will shove a pencil up your ass if you don't shut up," Erin growled as she sluggishly dragged herself to her log.

"Someone's cranky," he said with a smirk. Erin sat herself down with a huff and picked up a pencil. She started to draw one of her Hawkes from Dragon Age II, trying to ignore the sounds of sleeping campers and the yawns of those who were still awake. She tried to just focus on staying awake for that drawing. She just needed to stay awake. Stay awake. Stay a-


	6. The Big Sleep Part II

Erin blinked as the sunlight filled her eyes. She groaned as she tried to sit herself up. Her eyes immediately shot open when she realized that she was on the ground, surrounded by art supplies that looked like they fell. "Aw hell..." she moaned.

"That's right!" Chris shouted as he bent down in front of her. He was holding a coffee in one hand, the aroma of the coffee beans wafting into Erin's nose. How she missed coffee... "You fell asleep! Which means you're out." Erin growled and glared at Chris. She let her face fall back onto the grass and took a long, annoyed breath. She actually let herself fall asleep. And she was so close too! She heard Chris take a long, long sip of his coffee. "What's the matter with you people? Come on, fall asleep already! Erin did."

"First of all, screw you!" Erin shouted, her voice muffled by the ground. "Second of all, since I'm out, can I have coffee?"

"Nope!" Chris shouted. "You five that are still in, come with me. The rest of you hit the showers. You stink." She felt a foot lightly nudge her in the ribs. "Come on, Erin. Wakey wakey."

"I refuse to move because I literally have no energy to do so," Erin said, her words muffled. She felt two hands roll her onto her back and she immediately met Chris's dark eyes. She let out a huff and tried to stand herself up. "I hate you," she muttered as she stood up.

"No you don't," Chris said. She sat on one of the log and glared at Chris, giving him the middle finger. "Girl, you're going to cost me a lot in censors."

"You'd know how much I swear if you actually watched my videos," Erin said with a smirk. Chris sighed and shook his head.

"You know, that's actually a valid point," Chris said. He stood with the remaining five campers as the rest of the group went off to the showers. He looked at those five and shook his head. "I didn't want it to come to this. I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, 'Chef, I don't want it to come to this.' But darn it, these campers are tough. And so I've come up with the most boring sleep inducing activity I could find."

"You're gonna give them benadryl?" Erin asked. Chris smirked and shook his head. He took out a book and let out a sinister smile.

"The history of Canada, a pop up book," Chris said. Erin widened her eyes in shock and started to laugh.

"Oh you guys are screwed," she said while laugh. "I'm staying to watch this."

"Chapter one," Chris said as he opened the book, revealing a beaver. "The beaver; national symbol and a 'dam' fine hat." Erin sat there and sketched the remaining campers and Chris while he read from the boring pop up history book of Canada. She didn't catch anything until he said, "Which, of course, was the precursor for the discussions leading to the war of 1812."

"Trent! Don't leave me!" Gwen shouted as Trent fell asleep. Erin was finishing up the last details of color for that speed sketch. In all, she guessed that it had only been about half an hour. After all, Chris was reading ridiculously slowly for maximum boredom and they'd only gotten through the first chapter.

"Time for a bathroom break!" Chris shouted as he closed the book. Only Gwen and Duncan were awake now. Erin was praying that Duncan would out-awake Gwen. "Any takers?"

"I've held it this long, sweetheart," Duncan taunted. "I can go all day."

"Yeah, but can you hold it for another ten chapters?" Gwen asked challengingly. Duncan widened his eyes and started to head towards the bathroom.

"You've got five minutes," Chris said. "Long as you don't mind a little company."

"Now that's just wrong," Erin muttered. The camera man followed Duncan into the bathrooms. About five minutes later, the camera man came running back and whispered into Chris's ear.

"And we have news!" Chris shouted. "It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means the official winner of the Awake-a-thon is... GWEN!" Gwen immediately passed out as her name was called. Looked like she barely won, but barely was enough for the Gophers to beat the Bass. Erin stood up and gathered her art supplies. "Yo, Erin!" She looked up and caught the colored pencil that was flying at her head. "It rolled over there."

"Thanks," Erin said. "Now can food happen?"

"Breakfast will be served in fifteen," Chris said. Erin smiled and nodded, bouncing away from the fire pit. She just wanted food and possibly coffee if it was available.

* * *

When Erin finished her breakfast, she fully intended on going into her cabin and getting in a nap before elimination that night. Once she saw items flying out of the Killer Bass cabin, though, she knew that wasn't going to happen. She heard a loud yell that sounded like Eva. "Where is my mp3 player!?" The tough girl growled as more stuff flew out of the room.

"Well shit," Erin muttered as she walked up to the scene.

"One of you must have stolen it!" Eva shouted as she appeared in the window. "I need my music!"

"And I need my art supplies to stay intact!" Erin shouted back. This (obviously) didn't make Eva too much happier.

"No one is going anywhere until I get my mp3 player back!" Eva growled. She threw a book and nearly hit Harold in the face.

"Okay," Courtney said. "Whoever took it better give it up now before she destroys the whole camp."

"Hey guys!" Heather greeted a bit too sweetly as she approached the scene. "Wow, this place is a real mess."

"Someone stole Eva's mp3 player," Courtney explained.

"Or Eva just misplaced it and is freaking the fuck out over nothing," Erin snorted.

"You don't mean this, do you?" Heather asked. She took the familiar mp3 player out of her pocket and held it up for everyone to see. Erin narrowed her eyes. She didn't believe for a second that Heather 'just-so-happened' to find Eva's mp3 player. "I was wondering who it belonged to." Eva appeared out of the cabin, her face lit up in relief. "I found it by the campfire pit. You must have dropped it."

Unfortunately, that explanation did seem to make sense to Erin. Eva probably dropped it while she was sleeping. Eva ran towards Heather and took the mp3 player from her hands.

"Oh thank you!" Eva breathed out. "Thank you. Thank you!"

"Sure thing," Heather said with a shrug. She turned around and walked away, seemingly content with herself.

"So..." Eva started to say, rubbing the back of her head with her hand. "Sorry about that little misunderstanding. I guess no one stole it after all." None of the other Killer Bass seemed to happy about it, though. Everyone one of them, including Erin, stood there glaring at her. At least now Erin knew who she was voting out tonight. If Eva was going to rush to accuse her teammates of theft, she obviously didn't trust them. Trust was an essential element to a team. If they didn't have that, they didn't have a shot at winner any future challenges. "Okay, maybe I overreacted a little."

"No shit," Erin snorted. She turned around and entered the cabin. She looked around at the basically destroyed room and went over to her luggage, fully intending on seeing what was messed with and what was possibly ripped or broken. If Erin's tablet or laptop was broken, there would definitely be hell to pay.

* * *

"All I'm saying is that if it came down to Magikarp versus Metapod, Metapod would win."

"Like hell!" Erin shouted. "A wild Metapod only knows Harden. A wild Magikarp knows Splash, which can actually do some damage if they're by water." Harold rolled his eyes and sighed.

"But the Magikarp wouldn't be able to do a lot of damage if Metapod maxes out its defense with Harden," Harold said, poking some of his white mush with his fork.

"But Magikarp would still be able to do damage," Erin argued back. "Again, wild Metapods don't know any attacks."

"You guys are nerds," Courtney snorted, rolling her eyes. "Who even cares about that!"

"The Pokemon fandom," Erin snapped. "But a Magikarp versus Metapod battle would at least be more interesting than Metapod versus Metapod."

"True," Harold agree. "But I stand by what I said. Metapod would beat Magikarp any day."

"I will find proof that you're wrong," Erin said, pointing a spoonful of brown goo at Harold. "You know, when there's internet."

"I'd be lying if I said I hate to interrupt," Chris said as he approached the table, "But Bass, we need you to cast your votes. Step into the confessional one at a time."

"Okay," Erin said, eating her last bite of the rather disgusting brown goo. She turned to Harold and pointed her empty spoon at him. "We're going to have this battle after the show. You catch a wild Metapod, I catch a wild Magikarp and they'll fight until I win."

"Prepare to be defeated in an environment that has no water," Harold said with a smile. Erin rolled her eyes and picked up her dishes. She set them on the counter and followed the rest of her teammates outside. Erin stood outside of the confessional bathroom as she waited for her teammates to give their votes. First was Courtney, then Eva, DJ, Bridgette, Harold... finally Erin got her turn in the confessional. She watched the camera blink to life and took a long sigh.

"Okay," Erin started. "I'm pretty sure my teammates did the same, but I'm voting for Eva. She just proved that a) she can't keep a level head, and b) that she doesn't trust us. You can't trust me, I can't trust you. Plus she's more psychotic than my city elf Rissa. And I literally took every option that let me kill someone! So bye Eva."

Erin stood up and left the confessional. Tyler was the next to enter the confessional. Erin walked away from the confessional and walked towards the docks. She just wanted some time to herself to stare off into nothingness and be alone with her thoughts. She could only stand to spend so much time around people before she went absolutely crazy.

She sat down on the edge of the docks, pulled up her jeans, and took off her shoes and socks. She let her toes dangle down into the water. She leaned back, breathing in the mucky lake air. Was it the best smell? No. But it didn't smell worse than Owen's farts. She closed her eyes and let herself fell the last few drops of daylight as the sun set over the horizon. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Erin opened her eyes and saw Chris sitting down next to her. "Just wanted to get away from the craziness for a bit, you know?" Chris merely shrugged and looked out into the sunset.

"I get that," Chris said. "We chose clashing personalities for a reason."

"Ratings?" Erin asked with a faint smile. Chris let out laugh and nodded.

"Now you get it," Chris said. "Nah, but I didn't realize how psychotic most of these kids actually were. You're one of the few sane one."

"I know," Erin said. "Bridgette seems pretty cool. But Lindsay... Andraste's ass. How is that girl able to function?"

"No idea," Chris said. "I didn't think she was actually that stupid." He paused for a second and turned to Erin. "Wait. Andraste's ass? What's that supposed to even mean?"

"Dragon Age swear," Erin says. "I do that sometimes. You get into a game and then suddenly their world is your world. It's why I game so much. I can just escape and be someone's hero for once in my life. I can actually be important in a world-changing sense." Chris turned to the sunset and let out a slow nod.

"I get that," Chris said. He stood up and offered a hand to Erin. "Come on, brah. Time for elimination. I have no issue with telling you that you weren't eliminated."

"Thank the Maker," Erin breathed out.

"More Dragon Age terminology?" Chris asked. Erin nodded. "Just don't tell anyone that I told you that you're safe."

"I won't," Erin said. "You need max drama for ratings, right?" Chris smirked and nodded. Erin finally took his hand and helped her to her feet. She bent down to pick up her shoes and socks, not bothering to put them on as she went to the campfire pit for elimination.

By the time Chris and Erin got to the campfire pit, the sun had gone away, leaving the sky dark and full of the light of the stars. The fire enveloped the area in a warm, orange glow, creating dancing shadows around the scenery. Erin sat down as Chris went to get a large tray of marshmallows. "You've all cast your votes and made your decisions." He set the tray of marshmallows on an empty log. "There are only ten marshmallows on this plate. When I call your name, come up and claim your marshmallow. The camper who does not receive a marshmallow must immediately return to the Dock of Shame, catch the Boat of Losers, and leave. And you can never come back. Ever.

"The first marshmallow goes to Erin." Erin caught her marshmallow and stuck it in her mouth, giving Chris a thumbs up. "Duncan." Duncan got up, took the marshmallow, and immediately sat back down. "Bridgette. Courtney." Courtney practically ran to the tray of marshmallows to grab it. "Katie and Sadie." They let out their signature 'eee's' and hugged each other. "Tyler. DJ. Geoff."

"Campers," Chris said as he made a grand, sweeping gesture to the last marshmallow. "This is the final marshmallow of the evening." Both Eva and Harold looked worried as they stared at the last marshmallow like it was a beacon of hope. "Harold!" Chris finally said after many moments of anxious, dramatic silence. Harold smiled as he took his marshmallow. "Eva, the Dock of Shame awaits."

"Nice," Eva snarled. "Really nice. Who needs this stupid T.V. show anyway?"

"You, apparently. Just based on your reactions," Erin said. Eva glared at Erin sharply before turning around.. As she stalked past Chris, she kicked him hard the shins.

"Ow!" Chris shouted as he grabbed his leg. "Have a good night's sleep tonight. You're all safe." Erin stood up and chewed the last bit of her marshmallow.

"You good, man?" Erin asked. "I know Eva can pack a punch."

"It'll bruise," Chris said, rubbing his shin. "But I'll be good."

"Bye, Eva!" Courtney shouted. A moment later, a sharp came flying towards the group. Erin squeaked as she jumped out of the way. "Touchy..." the C.I.T muttered.

"You gonna join your team as they roast marshmallows?" Chris asked. Erin turned around and saw that her team was putting their marshmallows on sticks to roast over the fire.

"Nah," Erin said, shaking her head. "Not only am I tired as hell, but I also ate my marshmallow already like a moron. I'm turning in for the night."

"Night then," Chris said with a small wave. "Sleep well. Challenges await."

"It's just a question of how insane they are," Erin replied with a laugh. She turned around and started to walk back to the Killer Bass cabin, anxious to know what challenge she and the other campers would have to face next week.


	7. DodgeBrawl Part I

Erin sat in the Dining Hall, sketching out random sets of eyes to practice drawing eyes. Her paper looked rather creepy at the moment because of said random eyes that weren't affiliated with any face. She found herself occasionally dozing off due to her exhaustion from the previous challenge, but the faint ache in her wrist was succeeding in keeping her away. "Oh my Jesus I'm tired…" Erin muttered under her breath as she added the eyelashes to one of the many eyes on the sheet of paper.

"Duncan, you look like crap, dude." Erin turned her head and watched as a very well rested Chris McLean walked up to the Killer Bass's table.

"Stuff it," Duncan grumbled. He turned his head back around and fell back to sleep.

"Harold snored all night," Courtney explained. Erin sighed deeply and continued working on her paper of eyes.

"Wow," Chris said with a laugh. "Four nights with no sleep? How much are you hurting, dude?"

"Wanna find out?" Duncan threatened. His blue eyes were narrowed in a very harsh, very frustrated glare. Erin quickly sketched out an outline of his tired, pissed-off eyes. It would make for some good practice for emotional expressions. Chris immediately held up his hands in a, 'don't shoot the messenger' kind of fashion.

"No, no, it's cool," Chris said. "It's cool." He turned to Erin and smirked. "You're brave. Not hiding under the table like the rest of your team."

"Huh?" Erin asked. She looked around and, like Chris had pointed out, every single one of her teammates (except for Harold, who was still sleeping) was hiding under the table. "Oh… I guess I was too preoccupied with eyes." Chris arched an eyebrow in confusion, but the apparently seemed to notice that Erin was drawing. He took a step closer and looked over at the piece of paper. He winced and let out a shudder.

"That's creepy, brah," he said. Erin shrugged and turned back to her work.

"Eyes without faces generally are." The door suddenly opened and Harold entered. Everyone gasped, though, when they noticed that Harold face had a very horribly drawn mustache on it. Harold walked over to the table and everyone immediately started giggling. "Oh come on, guys, I could have done better," Erin whispered while giggling uncontrollably. Harold sat down next to Erin, clearly oblivious to what was drawn on his face.

"Okay, what?" he asked.

"Someone messed with your face, dude," Geoff told him. The campers started laughing again and Harold picked up a spoon to look at his face.

"Hey, sweet 'stache," he said. Erin rolled her eyes and turned back to her artwork. She was putting in some detail on the inner iris of the current eye she was working on.

"Hey everyone, it's Gwen!" Chris suddenly shouted. Erin looked up and watched as a very exhausted and sluggish Gwen dragged herself into the dining hall. Her entire team cheered as she entered the room. It was hard for Erin not to give that girl props for staying up as long as she did, especially through the pop up book on the history of Canada. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Courtney's eyes narrow. Two seconds later, Gwen had collapsed into her seat and let her face fall onto the table. Erin looked back down at her idle sketching and continued to add iris detail. She heard some footsteps by her and saw the familiar teal shirt of the host. "Seriously, those are creepy."

"I'm not really going for creepy, you know," Erin said. "I'm just practicing drawing expressive eyes. Look closer. It's all about tension and detailing." Chris arched his eyebrow, but bent closer to the paper. Erin put her pencil to the side for a second so that the host could get a better look at it.

"Oh yeah," he murmured after a few minutes. "I'm starting to see it." Erin let out a faint smile as she flexed her wrist, trying to lessen the dull ache that lingered.

"Hey, fish-heads!" Heather suddenly shouted, "Way to kick out your strongest player. Why don't you just give up now?" Courtney growled, picked up a spoonful of white mush, and flung it at Heather. Heather smoothly stepped out of the way and the white mush hit Gwen square in the face. "Missed me!"

"Nicely done, Courtney," Erin said with a snicker. Courtney glared at the black-haired artist, who put up her hands defensively.

"Alright campers," Chris suddenly said, moving to the center of the dining hall. "Your next challenge begins in 10 minutes… and be prepared to bring it." Erin narrowed her eyes at that. What exactly was the challenge going to be? As long as it wasn't anything extremely athletic, maybe they had a chance of winning this mysterious challenge.

* * *

"Oh _hell_ no."

"Language, brah."

Erin turned to Chris with widened eyes and an over-exaggerated grimace. Chris, on the other hand, was smirking very contentedly at Erin's exaggerated reaction to the challenge. She turned back to the site of the challenge and groaned loudly. She thought she'd escape the terrors of that activity when she left high school. No… she thought she was done with this dreaded game when she got her half-credit of physical education out of the way.

The next challenge was dodgeball.

Fucking _dodgeball._

"Nooooo," she moaned. "I thought I was done with this forever. I have my diploma. I don't need this in my life."

"Too bad, brah," Chris said. "It's come back to haunt you." Erin growled under her breath, but made her way to the glass-enclosed dodgeball court anyway. Each of the campers filled into the court one by one. Some of them seemed happier about the challenge than others. A few had smiles on their faces while others still looked exhausted from the previous challenge. Then there was Duncan… who immediately collapsed on the bleachers on the Killer Bass's side. Obviously he wasn't intending on playing.

"Wake me up, and it'll be the last thing you do," Duncan hissed before falling right to sleep. Tyler gulped while Courtney merely rolled her eyes. Erin was really starting to get sick of Courtney's know-it-all attitude.

"This is all your fault you know," Courtney snapped, pointing at Harold. "You and your snoring face!"

"It's called a medical condition," Harold snapped back. "Gosh!"

"Technically Harold's right," Erin pointed out, "Sleep apnea is a-" Erin was cut off by the loud shriek of a whistle. She winced at the loud, sudden sound and glared at Chef Hatchet. She was pretty sure the glass walls magnified the already shrill sound. She could practically feel her eardrums ringing.

"Today's challenge is a classic game of dodgeball," Chris said. "The first rule of dodgeball is-"

"Do not talk about dodgeball?" Noah asked. Erin and Owen both laughed at the joke. That really was a great time to slip in a Fight Club reference.

"As I was saying, if you get hit with the ball…" Chris then threw the ball aggressively at Courtney. The dodgeball slammed into her chest with a loud thud. "You're out."

"Ow!" Courtney shrieked. "You can't just do that!" She tossed the ball back at Chris, who caught it almost effortlessly.

"If you catch the ball, the thrower gets sent out and the catcher gets to bring in another team member out on the court," Chris explained, all while tossing the dodgeball up in the air and catching it.

"Throwing balls," Noah said. "Gee, another mentally challenging test."

"I know, right?" Lindsay said. Erin, Noah, and Owen all exchanged confused glances with each other. All three were trying to figure out if Lindsay was actually serious or not. Erin almost didn't want to believe that Lindsay was actually that dumb. How was she going to survive in the world like that?

"Okay," Chris said as he prepared to throw the dodgeball. "Now, Geoff, try to hit me." He threw the ball and Geoff caught it easily. Chef picked up a ball and tossed one to Chris. "If you're holding a ball, you can use it to deflect a ball. But if it knocks the ball out of your hands, you're out."

"So what do I do again when the ball comes at me?" Lindsay asked.

"You dodge!" Chris shouted. Geoff threw the ball and Chris deflected it with the ball he was holding. However, the ball rebounded directly into Lindsay's face, knocking her to the ground. Erin winced at the sight and shook her head. Chris let out a long sigh and shook his head. "You were supposed to dodge."

"Ow…" Lindsay moaned as she stood up. She started rubbing her slightly-red face. "Right…"

"You have one minute until game time," Chris said, holding up a single finger. "Gophers, you'll have to sit one extra person out each game. We start with five a team." Each team immediately went into a huddle to strategize.

"Okay, I'm gonna suggest that I sit out because I'm bad at athletic stuff," Erin immediately said. "Who are our strongest dodgeballers?"

"I'll go," Tyler said. "I'm good at sports. This is where I'll shine!"

"I'll volunteer," Courtney said almost snidely. "DJ? You're strong. You'll be out there too. Who else? We have two more spots."

"I'll do it!" Katie said with a bright smile.

"Same," Harold said. "It'll be a chance for me to show off my skills." Courtney immediately rolled her eyes and glared at the redhead, but didn't voice any complaint. Perhaps she just wanted to see Harold get hit in the face.

"Teams! Take your places!" Chris shouted. Erin watched as Cody, Leshawna, Owen, Lindsay, and Heather took their places on the Screaming Gopher's side of the court. Courtney, Harold, DJ, Tyler, and Katie all walked to their side of the court while Erin and the rest of the Killer Bass sat down on the bleachers.

"Bring it on, fishies," Heather taunted. "Otherwise winning three in a row just won't be as satisfying."

"Oh, you're going down!" Tyler shouted. "We're gonna bring the dinner to the table and then we're gonna eat it!" Erin sighed and shook her head. That poor summer child…

"Both teams ready?" Chris asked. "Best of five games wins. Now let's dodge some ball!" Chef blew the whistle three short times. Courtney, Katie, and Tyler all picked up the balls that sat on their side of the court. On the other side, Heather, Owen, and Cody armed themselves with dodgeballs. The whistle sounded once more and Cody threw his ball at Tyler. It flew right past his head and Cody immediately froze in fear. Tyler took his ball, spun around in circles and then threw it, hitting Sadie in the jaw. "That'll smear the makeup."

"Nice job," Courtney snipped. "Now let's see if you can hit someone on their team!" However, neither of them saw Owen come charging towards the middle, dodgeball in hand. He threw the ball and hit Tyler in the stomach, sending him flying toward the glass wall.

"Ow!" Tyler screamed as he hit the wall. "Darn it!" The whistle blew, signaling that Tyler was out. When Tyler made his way to the bench and sat down, Chef blew the whistle again.

"Time to unleash my wicked skills," Harold said.

"Yeah? Then bring it, string bean!" Leshawna challenged. "Let's see what you got." Harold balanced the ball on his knees, bent down and threw the ball onto the ground as hard as he could. It bounced briefly before rolling over to the other side of the court slowly. Erin facepalmed and shook her head.

"We're doomed," Erin said. "Completely and utterly doomed." Leshawna smirked and picked up the ball. Harold ran away, shrieking in a very feminine fashion. Leshawna threw the ball and it hit in right in the back of the head. He fell over and faceplanted into the glass wall. Chris winced as Chef blew the whistle.

"And that's how we roll!" Leshawna shouted as her team cheered. Katie smiled almost maliciously as she readied her ball for throwing.

"Can someone remind what I'm supposed to do with this again?" Lindsay asked as she picked up a dodgeball. Katie threw the ball, knocking Lindsay to the ground. Erin cheered and high-fived Bridgette and Geoff. They actually managed to get someone out! Maybe Katie wasn't as hopeless as Erin had initially thought. A second later, a dodgeball came flying towards the bleachers and hit Tyler right in the crotch. Erin grimaced as Tyler's face twisted in pain.

"Mommy!" the athlete squeaked out.

"What the heck was that?" Courtney demanded. "Ref! He's not even on the court!"

"Oopsie!" Heather said, very clearly feigning innocence. "Slipped." Courtney growled, picked up a ball, and threw it at Heather. It looked like she was going to get a hit, but then Owen stepped in and caught the ball. The whistle blew and Courtney frowned as the realization that she was out dawned on her. Not only that, but she played right into Heather's hand. Because Heather caught the ball, they were able to bring in a team member. Chef picked the very obviously exhausted Gwen. She sighed and then dragged herself onto the dodgeball court.

DJ picked up a ball and prepared to throw it at Owen. He threw the ball and it went flying towards Owen. He simply stepped out of the way and dodged it. Gwen, on the other hand, wasn't as luck. The ball hit her in the head and she immediately fell to the ground.

"Oh! Sorry!" DJ said.

"Oh, it's cool," Gwen said as Owen helped her up. "Trust me." The whistle blew and Chef motioned for Gwen to leave the court. Katie threw the next ball and it hit Owen on the back, eliminating him from the match.

It was now down to Katie and DJ versus Leshawna and Cody. DJ and Katie threw their balls at Leshawna. She blocked one of them, but then was hit right in the stomach. Cody looked up in fear at DJ and Katie. "Easy out, guys," Courtney said. "Easy out."

"Not necessarily," Erin said. The next moment, Cody threw the ball with a wicked amount of spin. DJ dodge the initial throw, but was hit in the butt when the ball curved back around. DJ looked shocked at the hit. "Told you."

"That is one tough ball to dodge," Chris said. Katie threw the next ball and Cody ducked. The ball went sailing over his head and he took the opportunity to pick up another ball. He rubbed the ball on his sweater, creating a static electricity field around the dodgeball. He threw the ball and Katie ran around the court, trying to avoid it. However, the ball seemed to chase her around, as the static was drawn to her clothing. Katie finally ended up running right into the wall, only to be hit by the ball a second later. Erin sighed and shook her head. They lost the first match of five. "Alright. Match two begins in one minute!" Courtney motioned for the Killer Bass to gather together to discuss who would be in the next game.

"We can do this!" Harold said. "We just have to believe in ourselves."

"Oh, I believe," Courtney snapped. "I believe you suck!"

"Yeah, you throw like a girl," Tyler said. Erin arched her eyebrow at the comment for two reasons. One; Tyler hadn't thrown much better than Harold. Two; that comment was almost as sexist as Ezekiel.

"You should talk," Courtney snorted.

"It was a warm-up throw," Tyler said, trying to defend himself. Erin rolled her eyes. That kid definitely had a fuckboy kind of attitude right now… an attitude she wasn't liking in the slightest. "Look, I can dominate this game."

"I find that doubtful right now," Erin said, her voice almost at a deadpan.

"Just give all the balls to me," Tyler said. Erin looked at her teammates. They weren't actually going to do that, were they? They weren't actually going to trust this idiot with the match?

"Fine," Courtney finally said. The whistle blew loudly, signaling the start of the next match. "Just try to aim for the other side, okay?" Erin sighed and shook her head.

"Who else are we sending out besides Tyler?" Geoff asked.

"Katie and Sadie?" Courtney suggested. The two girls nodded and made their way to the court. Tyler followed suit and immediately picked up all five of the balls on their side. "Bridgette, Geoff, you two go as well."

"On it," Geoff said. The two blondes walked out onto the court. Erin took her place on the bleachers and sighed. They were definitely doomed for this match. If they were really going to trust Tyler to aim right, which he was almost sure to fail at, then they almost deserved to lose this match. If they lost, they could at least eliminate Tyler. That's what Erin would do, anyway. Tyler smirked as he began to spin around in circles. He released the balls one by one.

Only one of them hit anyone on the other side.

The first hit Chef in the stomach. The second almost hit Chris in the head, prompting him to shout, "Hey! Watch the face, dude!" The third almost hit the Scream Gopher's bleachers, but the team members sitting out jumped out of the way. The fourth flew right at Erin's head and hit her square in the nose. She let out a grunt in pain as she fell off of the bleachers and onto the floor. The pressure of her glasses being pressed into the bridge of her nose didn't feel too great either. The last ball hit Lindsay in the face.

"No!" Tyler shouted as he ran towards Lindsay. Erin arched an eyebrow and dropped her jaw. Seriously? He wasn't upset about hitting his teammate, but he was upset about hitting Lindsay?

"Finally!" Courtney exclaimed. Erin shook her head and then felt something warm run down her jaw. She touched her face briefly and felt something warm and sticky. She pulled her fingers away and saw deep red staining her hands.

"Oh, hey, I'm bleeding," Erin commented almost casually. A moment later, Chris was kneeling down next to her. He lightly grabbed her jaw and tilted her head up to see the nosebleed.

"Yeah, brah," he said. "Definitely blood." Courtney was next to Erin a few seconds later. Erin could immediately tell that Courtney was going to go into full C.I.T mode. Chris looked up at one of the camera operations and motioned for him to come closer. "Get one of the first aid kits, will you?" The silent cameraman nodded and ran off.

"You need to remain calm and sit up straight," Courtney said, helping Erin sit up. "Lean you head forward and pinch your nostrils together for ten minutes. Don't let go any sooner. Anyone have a stopwatch or a timer?" Chris took out his iPhone and clicked through a couple things. Erin was assuming he was setting a timer or something. "And spit out any blood that ends up in your mouth. If you swallow it, you'll probably puke."

"Good to know," Erin muttered. She did as Courtney instructed and sat up, pinching her nostrils. "Dith ith kinda gross." She frowned at the sound of her muffled and strange sounding voice. Apparently she wouldn't be able to say many S's or T's for the next ten or so minutes. "I'm athusming I'm out for the retht of the challenge. Unleth you want me bleeding on the court."

"Yeeeeah," Chris said with a laugh. A second later, the whistle blew. Erin looked over at the game and saw Tyler holding Lindsay's hand while Trent stood there with an annoyed expression. Courtney facepalmed and shook her head.

"Wanna go for a walk?" Tyler asked Lindsay.

"Okay!" the bruised blonde replied.

"Great Gatsby, that is it!" Owen suddenly shouted. "Game on!" The fat kid ran up to Izzy and took her dodgeball right out of her hands. In one throw, he managed to knock out both Katie and Sadie. He took Beth's ball and threw it at Bridgette, hitting in the back of her hand. Trent simply handed Owen his ball and then Owen hit Geoff right in the law.

"Ow!" Chris said with a smile. "That one's worth an instant replay!"

"Are you seriouth right now?" Erin asked.

"OH! He dropped it like it was hot!" Leshawna shouted.

"I don't know what got into me," Owen said sheepishly as his teammates high fived him.

"So Erin is benched for the rest of the challenge because she's bleeding profusely," Chris said. "Teams, pick your next competitors! You have ten minutes while we wait for Erin to stop bleeding.."

"Hey, it's 2-0!" Heather shouted. "Not to mention Geek over there is benched. How does it feel to suck so much?"

"Why don't you tell us? You seem like you do it all the time," Erin shouted back, smirking at her own insult. A loud, collective 'OOOOH!' rang through the court. Even Chris started laughing at the burn. Heather glared at Erin sharply.

"That's gonna have to be edited out, but MAN that was fantastic!" Chris said between laughs.

"It's not over yet!" Courtney shouted back. She then looked down and shook her head. "It's so over…"

"Not necessarily," Erin said. "Just don't give Tyler all of the ballth again. He clearly can't throw worth thit."

"This is bad," Courtney said. "One more game and we lose the whole challenge… again! We can't let that happen people. We need someone strong, someone mean, someone who'll crush those stupid gophers into the dirt!"

"Stho Duncan?" Erin asked. Almost immediately, everyone's eyes went towards the sleeping punk.

"No," DJ said. "If we wake him up, he'll kill us."

"He won't kill us, guys," Courtney said. "He wants to win too."

"Right now he juth wanths to sleep," Erin said. "Clearly, you've never been deprived of dat much sleep before. He'll definitely kill you."

"But Courtney's right," Harold said. "We need Duncan's fierceness to win this."

"That's the spirit, Harold," Courtney said. "Now go wake him up."

"Why me?" Harold asked.

"Because other than Tyler and Erin, you're the worst at dodgeball. Erin's already injured, not to mention she has a lot of other strengths. If he does kill you, you're the only one we can afford to lose," Courtney explained. Erin rolled her eyes at Courtney's reasoning. It did kind of make sense, but at the same time, did she really need to put it like that? As Harold already didn't have a low self-esteem…

"No way," Harold said. "I'm not doing it."

"Well, who's gonna wake him up?" Courtney asked.

"You should," Erin said. Courtney narrowed her eyes at Erin, who merely shrugged. "Or get a stick and poke him if you're really that scared." Everyone looked around at each other, smiling at the suggestion. Erin dropped jaw and looked at her teammates incredulously. "Are you theriously going to find a stick and poke him?"

"It's the safest suggestion so far," Courtney said. "Come on guys!" She got up and ran out of the court, the rest of the Killer Bass following her. Erin sighed and resisted the urge to shake her head. Chris walked up to Erin as he watched the Killer Bass all leave the court. He tilted his head in confusion and bent down closer to Erin.

"What are they doing?" he asked.

"Getting a stick stho dat dey can wake up Duncan without getting killed," Erin said. "I'm on a team of moronth."

"Yeeeeeah," Chris agreed. Erin watched through the clear walls as her teammates struggled to find a large enough stick to use to wake up Duncan. She only prayed that they could hopefully win this challenge. She was also praying that they would stay alive if they woke up Duncan, but Erin was honestly more concerned about the challenge right now. She didn't want a three-peat on their losses, after all.


	8. DodgeBrawl Part II

Erin watched as her teammates reentered the arena with a large, large stick. Harold, Courtney, Bridgette, and Geoff all crept up behind Duncan and immediate poked him gently in the butt. "We have to go higher," Courtney whispered. Erin rolled her eyes at the scene. One of them was definitely going to get murdered today. They lifted the branch higher and gentle tapped Duncan on the nose. Almost at once, the punk kid grabbed the branch and snapped it in half. Erin winced and looked away, not wanting to see anyone get their bones snapped in two.

"You better have a really good reason for sticking this up my nose," he growled.

"Look," Courtney said, "We're down two-nothing. I can appreciate that you need a little nap time, but we need your help."

"And why should I help you, darling?" Duncan asked.

"Because I can personally guarantee you that if we lose this game, you'll be the one going home, darling," Courtney threatened. Erin turned around again and watched as Courtney and Duncan were locked in an almost deadly glaring match. It was weird, but for some reason Erin was starting to ship the two of them. Not like a hardcore OTP kind of deal… just a minor ship. Duncan finally relented and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine," he said. "I'll play on one condition. You do what I say when I say it." He looked around at the team, furrowing his brow when he saw Erin sitting on the bleachers pinching her nose. "What happened to you?"

"Dodgeball to the face," Erin said, her words still slightly muffled. "I'm out for the match." Duncan sighed and shook his head.

"Damn, I was hoping to use you," Duncan muttered. "Okay, here's a strategy I picked up during my first visit to juvie. It's called rush the new guy." Erin couldn't hear what Duncan was saying as the rest of the team went into a huddle. She kind of wanted to know, but at the same time she just wanted to experience this strategy as it happened. The only snippet that she managed to hear was Duncan saying, "I want Courtney, DJ, Geoff, and Katie on the court for this one." She heard a loud, very generic ringtone go off an immediately knew that it had to be the alarm Chris set on his phone for ten minutes. Erin let go of her nose and saw that the bleeding had subsided. Granted, she was pretty sure she managed to swallow a little bit of the blood based on her current nausea.

"You still bleeding?" Chris asked as he walked up to her.

"Nope," Erin replied, popping the 'p.' She looked down at her hand and saw that her fingers were stained with red from when she was pinching her nose. "That's gross and cool at the same time. I actually like that shade." Next to her, Chris was grimacing at the sight of her dried nasal blood.

"Just… just go wash up or something," he said while looking at her had with wide eyes. "Yeah… just… gross, brah." Erin gave Chris a thumbs up, showing off the slightly red thumb. He let shudder and recoiled in disgust. She let out an almost maniacal giggle as she jumped off the bleachers and exited the arena. She walked as fast as she could towards the communal bathrooms. Unfortunately, she was still able to smell the stench of mildew and other disgusting bathroom substances. She turned on the faucet and watched as slightly green water came pouring out. She didn't even bother to try and get warm water to wash her hands with; the campers figured out by day two that hot water was pretty much nonexistent at Camp Wawanakwa. She watched the water turn slightly red as it ran off of her hands while she hummed the theme song for Steven Universe.

When Erin was sure that the dried, crusty remains of blood had been washed from her hands, she turned off the faucet and dried her hands on the sides of her jeans. She didn't really trust the towels hanging next to the sinks at all. She left the communal bathrooms and went almost immediately to the confession stall. Since she was already nearby, she might as well talk to the viewers at home. She opened up the stall and sat down. The little red light was already on, as Erin expected, so she took a slow breath and started talking.

"So… getting hit in the face with a dodgeball wasn't fun," Erin said. She shrugged and let out a faint, 'meh.' "I mean, I'm kind of glad I don't have to play any matches. I'm terrible at all sports. Well… except esports. I'm good at esports. I can kick butt in League of Legends, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. But as of right now, we're losing badly. Like, Tyler can't throw. At all. What the ever living hell is up with that weird spinning technique?" She sighed and shook her head. "Duncan's plan better work or we're screwed. At least I know who I'm voting off if we lose." She shook her head, stood up, and left the confessional.

Erin noticed that Lindsay, Tyler, and Heather were all entering the arena before her. She furrowed her brow. That was rather odd… What were the three of them doing? "You were with that blonde Gopher girl, weren't you?" Erin heard Courtney snap as she entered the arena once more.

"No!" Tyler immediately responded. "Maybe… So?"

"So," Courtney hissed, "she could've been getting you to spill all of our weaknesses to her."

"Okay!" Chris suddenly shouted. Erin made her way to the bench and sat down. She was anxious to hear whether or not her team had actually won a match. "This is it; the final tie-breaking game." She couldn't stop her jaw from dropping.

"Wait… we actually won two games?" Erin asked.

"Yes, Erin, we did," Courtney snipped.

"Teams, choose who you want on the court!" Chris said. Erin was immediately drawn into another huddle with the Killer Bass.

"Okay, who's going in?" Duncan asked. "We all know not Erin."

"Thanks again for that, Tyler," Erin snorted.

"I think it's my turn," Harold said.

"No way," Courtney said. "We actually have a chance to win this. It should be me, DJ, Duncan, Bridgette, and Geoff." Harold sighed and merely nodded. "Let's win this thing." The Killer Bass all took their positions, Erin sat on the bleachers with every other Bass that wasn't playing this round.

"Gophers, Bass, let's send this sample to the lab and see what you're made of!" Chris shouted.

"I have no idea whether or not that was actually a good line or not," Erin commented. Chris gave her an almost mocking glare as Chef blew the whistle behind him. She merely smiled and shrugged, hoping that the host wasn't actually mad at her. Gwen ran up to the line and kicked a ball up into her hands. She tossed it to Cody, who ran further back in the court.

"Come on, people," Heather snapped. "Quick feet, fast hands." Cody passed the ball to Leshawna, who passed it to Heather, who threw it at DJ, who jumped up and dodged it. More balls went flying across the court. She couldn't tell who was throwing what anymore. Some Bass got out, some Gophers got out, some Bass got back in, some Gophers got back in… this game was going on for far longer than anyone anticipated. But then again, it was the final battle for the win. It was practically boss fight of this Dodgeball frenzy. Failure wasn't an option for either side. All the while, Harold sat almost glumly next to Erin. He was the only one besides her than hadn't been on the court yet.

Finally, Geoff handed Harold a dodgeball. The redhead smiled and made his way onto the court. "Back of the court, Princess," Duncan said with a snort. Harold frowned and followed orders. Almost immediately after, Courtney got hit in the face.

"That was for the oatmeal!" Gwen half-shouted.

"Oh!" Leshawna shouted with a loud laugh. "You messed with the wrong white girl." A few seconds later, there was a loud thud and Geoff hit the ground. BAM! Leshawna. BAM! BAM! BAM! Duncan was out. _Duncan._ Erin was truly beginning to think that they were going to lose. It was almost beginning to feel inevitable to her. BAM! Erin looked over to the Gophers side and saw that Cody had been hit… square in the crotch.

"Oof!" Erin shouted with a wince. "Crotch shot. That's gotta hurt."

"You trying to steal my hosting gig?" Chris asked with a half-smirk.

"Nope," Erin replied. "Just used to making commentary on my playthroughs." BAM! BAM! Gwen and DJ both knocked each other out. It was down to Harold versus Owen. Erin sighed and shook her head. "Whelp… It was nice to at least have some hope of winning."

"Sorry, dude," Owen said, "But you gotta go down." The large kid picked up four dodgeballs, two in each hand.

"Good night, Harold," Duncan said as he covered his eyes.

"Sleep tight," Erin added. "Don't die; it's bad for your health." Duncan let out a snort at Erin's words.

"Nice one," he said. Harold suddenly started to a strange array of what looked like kung fu moves. What was he trying to do? Center his chi or something? To Erin's surprise, he made a motion to Owen, telling him to bring it on. Owen threw the balls one by one. _Whoosh!_ Harold dodged. _Whoosh!_ Dodge. _Whoosh!_ Dodge. _Whoosh!_ Matrix dodge. Erin dropped her jaw and stared at the redheaded boy in shock. Apparently Harold possessed some semblance of skill.

"Time out! Time out!" Courtney shouted. Harold walked back to the bleachers. Tyler had already grabbed a bucket and Bridgette was rushing to get a water bottle. DJ grabbed a towel and draped it over Harold's shoulders as he beginning massaging him.

"Holy shit, Harold," Erin said. "I gotta draw you doing that matrix dodge. That was too epic."

"Man, that boy's got dodge," Duncan said.

"Damn straight!" Erin agreed.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Duncan asked. Harold drank some of the water and then spit out the rest onto Tyler's face. Erin smirked. Tyler definitely deserved that.

"Figure skating," Harold replied.

"Harold, that was awesome," Geoff said. "But dodging isn't enough."

"He's right," Courtney agreed. "To win this you either have to throw him out-"

"Which we all know you can't do," Duncan interjected.

"Or catch the ball," Courtney finished. "Can you do it?" Harold smiled, a look of determination filling his face, and nodded once.

"Definitely," he said.

"Awesome!" DJ shouted, slapping Harold on the back. "Now go catch that ball!" The whistle blew, signaling the end of the time out. Harold took a breath and stepped out onto the court. Erin held her breath, praying to the Nine Divines, the Maker, and every other video game deity she could think of. When Harold took his place, the rest of the Bass began chanting his name.

"Come on Harold!" Erin cheered.

"Cowabunga!" Owen shouted as he threw the ball at Harold. The redhead was hit in the chest with the ball and went flying towards the glass wall of the court. Erin bit her lower lip as she waited to see whether or not the boy caught the ball. When Harold held up the dodgeball, Erin let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and slumped against her seat.

"Thank the Maker," she moaned. Chef blew the whistle and held up his arms.

"The Killer Bass win!" Chris shouted. Erin smiled and started laughing as she was dragged into at least four different group hugs as once.

"It's impossible!" Owen shouted. He fell to his knees and cried out, "WHY!?" The Killer Bass rushed onto the court and picked up Harold, placing him on DJ's broad shoulders. Erin hopped up and followed her team, leaving behind the shocked Screaming Gophers.

* * *

Night had since fallen and Erin could see the dim orange glow of the bonfire from the steps of her cabin. She was sitting on those steps, using only a lantern as her light source, and putting on the finishing details of her sketch of Harold matrix-dodging the dodgeballs. She was trying to make this image more epic than her previous one. After all, this was the copy that was going to Harold. She wanted to try and boost his ego a little bit. She humming a song by Gorgon City under her breath, occasionally singing a few words.

"No, no, no don't tell me that you're leaving," she sang under her breath. "I need you to use, use, use, use, use, use your imagination…" She tilted her head to the side as she added in more shading on the dodgeballs in the image. This actually was a pretty good image even for her. Part of her almost wanted to keep it for herself, but she knew that'd been ridiculously selfish of her. After all, the intent of this art was to be a gift for Harold and she intended to keep it that way.

"Whatcha humming?"

Erin looked up and saw Chris leaning against the rails of the steps. Apparently elimination was already done. "Imagination by Gorgon City. It popped up on my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify before I left for this. It's been stuck in my head ever since." Chris let out a short, 'hmm' and then looked down at the drawing she was working on.

"You haven't moved at all since after dinner," Chris said. "I thought you and your team would be celebrating. I mean, you did just have your first win."

"Do I look like the overly social type?" Erin asked with a laugh. "Besides, I want to try and relax a bit before dealing with whatever fucked up challenge you give us next." Chris let out a laugh and shrugged.

"This is why I like you, Hoffman," Chris said. "You're blunt."

"Don't forget my lack of a filter," Erin added with a smirk. "What time is it anyway?"

"No idea," Chris replied. "How's your nose doing? Is that bruising I see?" Erin sighed and nodded.

"Yep," she said, popping the final consonant. "It'll get worse before it gets better. I mean, I'd rather have a black nose than a black eye. And at least my glasses didn't break."

"You ever consider contacts?"

"Tried 'em," Erin said. "Didn't like 'em. The main problem was that my eyes would hurt after staring at computer screens for long periods of time. Since staring at a computer for hours at a time is part of my line of work…"

"Gotcha." There was a semi-awkward silence between the two of them. Erin wasn't sure of what to say or why Chris was even bothering to talk to her.

"So… uh… who got eliminated?" she asked.

"Noah," Chris said.

"Not surprising, considering he didn't participate," Erin said with a snort.

"Neither did Marco," Chris said. "But I have a feeling that the Gophers forgot he was even there." Erin furrowed her brow for a second and tilted her head to the side. Who in the hell was- Oh right.

"I keep forgetting he exists," she said. "I feel like a horrible person for forgetting about his existence."

"Don't," Chris said. "I forget about him ninety percent of the time. So does the crew. And his team."

"So basically everyone."

"Exactly." Suddenly, Erin let out a large, somewhat high pitched yawn. Apparently she was more tired than she anticipated.

"Not gonna lie, that yawn was adorable," Chris said. Erin rolled her eyes and shut her sketchbook.

"I guess that's my cue to turn in for the night," Erin said as she began to pack away her large collection of colored pencils. "Like I said before, I need to be well rested for whatever fucked up challenge we have next. I don't even want to know what else you have up your sleeve, McLean."

"You really don't," he said with an almost devilish smirk. "G'night, brah. Sleep tight. Don't die; it's bad for your health." Erin sighed and shook her head. "I'm going to steal that line. It's too good not to use on television."

"Whatever," Erin said as she stood up. "Good night." Chris gave her a single wave before turning around and heading off to his own trailer. Erin walked up the remaining two steps and into her cabin, where some of the girls were already crashed for the night. She gently packed her art supplies into her suitcase and hopped into her bed. She didn't even register the moment she fell into a deep sleep.


	9. Not Quite So Famous Part I

Chris collapsed on the couch inside his trailer, a single can of tomato juice in his hand. He always found himself in need of some of his favorite drink after an elimination ceremony. These kids were basically the most psychotic teenagers in the entirety of Canada. He was convinced of it. Well… most of them were. The only contestant he found himself able to tolerate was Erin, and even she had a small level of psychoticism, like during the Dodgeball Tournament when she actually liked studying the shade of her own blood. Then again, that wasn't nearly as bad as the other 95% of the contestants. His gaze subconsciously darted to the sketch of him that she'd created during the Awake-a-thon challenge. The realism to the image amazed him every time he looked at it. Never in a million years with the best training money could buy would Chris ever be able to draw that like.

An idea suddenly popped into Chris's head as he thought about Erin. She was right during the Awake-a-thon challenge. He hadn't actually watched any of her videos besides that TDI update and the compilation. He walked over to his laptop and logged in. He opened up his internet browser and immediate searched for ErinysArt on YouTube. He clicked on one of the most popular videos, in which Erin was playing some game was called Q.W.O.P. The video popped up and he saw the image of a faceless man wearing a red track uniform. _"Hello everyone and welcome to another one of these 'Let's Play' videos. I'm ErinysArt, but you should know that if you've bothered to go to my channel and look down to see who the creator of this video is. Today we're going to be playing a much requested game by the name of Q.W.O.P. I'm totally going to call it Qwop, though, because I don't feel like spelling that out every time. So the basic premise of this game is that you're an Olympic runner and you have to run 100 meters. Alrighty, so let's get this game started. It shouldn't be too hard."_ He watched as the runner moved one leg, then immediate fell backwards and hit his head on the track. _"Oh shit I spoke too soon. Now I know why you all requested this."_

Chris couldn't help but laugh at this. For the next three minutes Erin was trying to figure out a strategy so that she could go more than two meters. _"Wait- waaaaaait. I think I got this. I just need to hop on one knee and just keep doing that for the entire 100 meters."_ Erin controlled the runner, moving it forward slowly one knee bounce at a time. Sometimes there would be a close call and she'd make a plethora of high pitched noises with expletives mixed with in. Every time the runner would land safely on his knee, she would let out a large dramatic sigh and say, " _Oh thank GOD. This fucking game is going to give me a fucking heart attack. Why would you all do this to me? You're lucky I love you."_ She was getting close to 45 meters when she said, " _At least this game doesn't have hurdles. Then I'd really be screwed."_

And exactly on cue, Erin reached the 50 meter mark and suddenly a hurdle came into view. He heard the sound of her hands slamming down onto desk as she made a flurry of frustrated noises followed by a long grow. " _Mother fucking twatface asshole dick wad shit fuck damn shite mother bitch fucker!_ " she shouted. " _Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? A HURDLE! You're giving me a HURDLE. How in the FUCK am I supposed to get over this hurdle? I can barely fucking run and now I have a HURDLE!? I hate everything. This is bullshit."_ Chris almost felt some of the tomato juice he'd just taken a sip of come out of his nose because of how hard he was laughing at her overreaction. His sides were actually starting to hurt. Erin let out a long frustrated sigh and then said, _"Okay. You can do this. It's just one hurdle. Maybe I can just knock it down and knee bounce over it. Hopefully."_ Erin moved the run very carefully. She was muttered incoherent words to herself. She got one leg over the hurdle that she knocked down and let out sigh of relief. _"Okay. One leg down, one to go. You can do this."_ About twenty seconds later, the runner started tipping further and further backwards while Erin shouted, _"No no no. Nononononononono." When_ the runner finally fell and the game announced that she'd failed, she screamed and let out a series of frustrated noises. _"NOOOOOOOO! This stupid ass hurdle! Why!? Y'all know what? I'm done. Screw the Olympics. I'm not meant for this shit. Clearly this runner needs to go to the hospital because he has some serious leg muscle issues and I'm also pretty sure his knee isn't supposed to ragdoll backwards when he falls. Based on the crunch I heard when I failed to get over the hurdle, he also has a broken skull. Maybe I should play Surgeon Simulator next and pretend I'm operating on Qwop over here. So that's it for today. Remember to like and subscribe. Leave comments below, good or bad, I honestly don't give a shit. Also, I finally started guilds in Argent Dawn in World of Warcraft. If you want to join, search for Erinyes Force if you're Horde and Erinyes Company if you're Alliance. So long and stay awesome, little Erinyes."_

"Damn she's good," Chris said to himself, taking another long swing of his tomato juice. He went back to Erin's channel page. His eyes darted a playlist of Erin playing Dragon Age: Origins. Chris had never played the game, nor was he a big gamer, but perhaps Erin's videos would convince him to play more video games. He clicked on the first video on the playlist. He'd watch one or two videos and then go to bed.

Chris didn't stop watching videos until nearly 4:30 in the morning.

* * *

Erin let out a loud scream and fell almost violently off of her bed when she heard the loud airhorn go off on the camp speaker system. She flailed around on the floor, tangled in her own blanket. "Jesus frigging Christ!" she shouted.

"All right, campers, enough beauty sleep," Chris's voice announced. "Time to show us what you're made of!" Erin sighed and wormed her way out of her blanket. She decided against wearing her GEEK hoodie today, as it apparently got peed on by something when she took it off when she was outside sketching the previous day, and opted for her Dragon Age jacket, a plain black t-shirt, and her usual pair of jeans. After that, the campers were rushed to the mess hall for a very brief breakfast which consisted of the usual white mush that tasted vaguely of oatmeal, then ushered over to another part of the camp. There were two sets of bleachers set up in front of sizable stage with a patchwork curtain and precariously placed stage lights. Erin had no idea what the challenge would be, but it definitely involved theatre. Erin sat next to Duncan and immediately took out her sketchbook, drawing the scene before them with pencil. She didn't have her sizable colored pencil collection with her at the moment, so she'd have to do that from memory later.

"Are we gonna see a musical?" Lindsay asked. "I love musicals. Especially the ones with singing and dancing." Erin turned to Lindsay with a dropped jaw and wide eyes. How did this girl even function? A moment later, Erin heard a loud thump. She turned around and saw that Cody had fallen between the wooden bleachers in an attempt to look cool for Gwen.

"Welcome to our brand-new, deluxe, state-of-the-art outdoor amphitheatre," Chris said, walking into the center of the stage and raising his arms dramatically.

"Party hard," Erin said as she closed her sketchbook and put her pencil in her pocket. Chris briefly winked at her before looking back at the other campers.

"Okay," Chris said. "This week's challenge is a summer camp favorite… a talent contest!"

"YES!" Owen shouted. "Awesome!"

"Each team has eight hours to pick their three most talented campers," Chris said. At once, all of the Killer Bass eyes went to Erin. She blushed and attempted to hide inside of her jacket like a turtle in its shell. Why did she know they'd want to use her speedsketching as a talent? "These three will represent them in the show tonight. Sing, dance, juggle. Anything goes as long as it's legal." Chris narrowed his eyes at Duncan. The juvenile delinquent snapped his fingers and frowned. Erin almost didn't want to know what illegal talent that boy had. "You'll be judged by our resident talent scout, former DJ, VJ, and rap legend Grand Master Chef! He'll show his approval via the Chef-o-meter. The team that loses will send one camper home tonight. Good luck."

"Guys, we have this in the bag!" Courtney said. "We have Erin!"

"And one other thing!" Chris shouted. "This talent contest is for amateurs only." He immediately looked directly at Erin and raised his eyebrows. Erin groaned and flopped her head down into her lap. She couldn't be of any help in this challenge.

"What is it?" Duncan asked.

"Guys, I can't be one of the three representatives," Erin said. "I'm technically considered a professional because I make money from art commissions." The entire team groaned; some of them even facepalmed.

"Well, that kills our advantage," Courtney muttered. "Come on. Let's find somewhere to see everyone's talents." Erin merely shrugged and stood up. She followed her teammates to the outside of the girls cabin. Erin sat down on the ground and took out her sketchbook once more. She couldn't really help the team out now in any way besides voting for who competed.

"So… talents," Erin said. "Who's got one that amateur and legal?"

"Well, I can play the violin," Courtney said. "I'm first chair at my school and I already have a solo prepared. So I'm going to nominate myself as one of the representatives. Any objections?"

"I want to hear it first," Duncan said. "Just so we know you don't suck." Courtney let out a scoff and rolled her eyes. She practically stomped towards the girls' cabin. A few minutes later she appeared with her violin in hand but no music.

"I'll be playing the theme from _Schindler's List_ ," Courtney said as she placed her violin under her chin. "From memory." She raised the bow and immediately began to play the haunting theme. Erin actually stopped sketching for a few moments and actually listened to Courtney play the sorrowful melody. Erin had some musical training under her belt courtesy of her twin Andrea. She was a jazz studies major at McGill University with an emphasis in voice. That didn't mean that she didn't regularly interact with other music majors as well, not to mention Erin got roped into learning a few things about music theory. When Courtney finished the piece, all of the Killer Bass clapped slowly.

"Okay, I believe you," Duncan said, raising his hands defensively. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

"Anyone else have something to contribute?" Courtney asked as she moved her violin off of her shoulder.

"Sadie and I dance!" Katie shouted.

"Awesome. We have a radio?" Erin asked. A moment later, one of the crew members ran in, dropped a radio next to Harold, and then ran away again. The entire time, the campers just stared at the random man, surprised that they retrieved a boombox that quickly. "Um… thanks?" Erin called out. The Killer Bass all turned to each other and shrugged. Harold turned on the radio and dance music that you'd find in a club immediately turned on. Sadie and Katie began to dance fairly badly to the music. They shook their butts, raised the roof, and Sadie ended with a split.

"Okay…" Courtney said. "We'll think about it. Next?" Tyler jumped up and took a pink yoyo out of his pocket.

"Watch this!" Tyler shouted. Erin immediately jumped up and ran far away from him. No way was she adding a black eye to her face. She still had remnants of bruising around her nose. Tyler let the yoyo loose and two seconds later he'd managed to completely tie himself up.

"Man, that is weak," Chris commented as he walked by.

"Well we'd have more of a chance if you didn't put that stupid amateur rule in place," Duncan snapped. Erin again attempted to hide inside of her jacket like a Krogan into its armor. She felt everyone's eyes immediately go to her, including Chris's. Her face grew hotter and she knew she was probably redder than a tomato.

"Amateur talent gets more ratings," Chris said. "Besides, Chef and I didn't think it'd be fair for her to enter. She'd win hands down. We need it to be an actual contest, you know?" Erin widened her eyes, tossed the hood of her jacket over her head and attempted to minimize herself as much as humanly possible. Erin was starting to get embarrassed by how much Chris tended to compliment her. It was like he focused more on her sometimes than the other contestants. Then again, she did have the biggest online following out of all of them. Maybe he was trying to capitalize that for ratings. Chris smirked and walked off, most likely heading towards the Screaming Gophers to see what their talent pool looked like.

"Who's next?" Duncan asked. DJ raised his hand and ran into the Killer Bass guys' cabin. A few minutes later, he emerged wearing a white unitard holding a long pink ribbon. He began to leap around the area, twirling the ribbon and dancing with grace that made Erin envious. They _had_ to go with DJ as one of the acts. He was so beautiful. He ended with a flick of the ribbon and a slide into a perfect split. Erin and the rest of her team all smiled and clapped at DJ's beauteous ribbon dance. Well… almost everyone. Courtney was sitting cross-legged on a long and scowling.

"Fine," Courtney said. "Sign him up. Next?"

"Me!" Bridgette shouted. "I can stand on my hands for 20 minutes. Watch!" Bridgette immediately flipped into a handstand and began to walk around. Courtney rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Okay, that'd be cute if you were a monkey," Courtney said. "I just don't think it's quite what we're looking for. Next!" Harold walked forward and into in a deep gulp of air before Courtney shouted out, "Next!"

"Oh come on," Erin snapped. "At least give him a chance to show what he can do. He might surprise you, like he did with the dodgeball challenge."

"I'm going to risk losing this challenge," Courtney argued back. "The dodgeball was a fluke. Who's next?"

"I'm pretty good at skateboarding," Geoff said. "Let me just grab my board." Geoff ran into the guys cabin, the screen door slamming behind him. Erin opened her sketchbook and began to sketch out some random designs on a blank page. Geoff came back out with his orange and yellow striped skateboard.

"Kill it, Geoff!" Erin shouted as he ran to the nearest hill. He set his skateboard on the ground and hopped onto it. He immediately started skating down the hill in order to gain enough speed to make the jump off the small cliff he was aiming for. He made the jump and did a kickflip in the air. The Killer Bass let out a cheer as he displayed a few more moves when he landed on the ground again. He ended by rolling up a tree stump, flipping the skateboard several times, and then catching it. Geoff let out a smile and a wink as the Killer Bass cheered and applauded. Erin let out a loud whistle and gave him a thumbs up.

"Well, I guess it's Geoff, DJ's ribbon thing, and your solo," Bridgette said.

"I'm gonna be on TV, man!" Geoff shouted. Everyone paused and stared almost blankly at Geoff.

"You're already on TV, Geoff," Bridgette pointed out.

"I mean, camera guy, right over there," Erin said, pointing to the nondescript looking camera operator that was currently recording their every interaction.

"Oh yeah," Geoff said. He ran up to the cameraman and waved at the camera. "Hello out there, dudes!" Erin laughed and rolled her eyes as she stood up.

"Geoff, you're such a nerd," she said as she pushed her glasses back up to the bridge of her nose. "Should we head over to the stage then? I imagine the three of you want to warm up and get a feel for it."

"I do need to figure out the acoustics," Courtney said. The rest of the team seemed to agree with the idea of getting to the stage to prepare for the show. Then, of course, Chef came on the camp intercom.

"It's lunch time, maggots," Chef shouted. "Report to the mess hall now!" Duncan let out a loud scoff and rolled his eyes.

"Oh boy, more green slop," he said.

"Maybe it won't move today," Erin joked. Duncan let out a loud laugh and the two of them joined the rest of the contestants as they trekked to the mess hall for the latest disgusting slop that probably wasn't even food.


	10. Not Quite So Famous Part II

Erin and the rest of Killer Bass were hanging out around the stage. Erin was lying on the grass below it with her sketchbook open wide and her wide array of colored pencils strewn around her. On stage, Courtney was tuning her violin and playing some random tune that Erin honestly couldn't identify. Duncan and DJ were playing cards while Harold and Bridgette looked on. Geoff was sitting on the edge of the stage spinning the wheels of his skateboard. "So," Geoff said. "Can you really stand on your hands for twenty minutes?"

"Wanna bet that I can't?" Bridgette asked with a smirk.

"Oh you're on!" Geoff shouted.

"I'll take a piece of that action," Harold said.

"Yeah," DJ said as he placed a card on the boxes he and Duncan were using as a table. "That's like virtually impossible."

"I mean, so's jumping off a cliff into shark infested waters and living," Erin pointed out. "But count me in as well. I wanna see this."

"Ante up," Bridgette said. Erin tore out a blank page from her sketchbook and popped up to her feet. She jumped onto the stage. The Killer Bass (sans Courtney), all put whatever they happened to have in their pockets at the time onto the table. Everyone turned to her with a confused look on their face when Erin put down the blank sketchbook page.

"What? It's a promise for free art after the competition," Erin said. "You know, for when I have internet and technology." Bridgette merely shrugged and looked at the other Killer Bass.

"Okay," she said. "Twenty minutes starting now." She bent forward and launched herself into a handstand. She began to walk around the stage on her hands as she found her balance. Erin and the others smiled and started laughing as Bridgette walked around seemingly effortless in the handstand. Erin was jealous of that kind of coordination. She was more of a fine-motor skills person than a gross-motor skills person. Suddenly, the rope that was suspending one of the spotlights got caught around Bridgette's calf. She let out a groan and tried to pull her leg free. Unfortunately, this also snapped the rope and the spotlight came crashing down right on top of Courtney. Everyone on the Killer Bass cringed and Bridgette jumped back to her feet, screaming, "Oh crap!" Courtney had a small scrape on her head, but her violin received the brunt of the damage.

"Erin, go get Chris," DJ said.

"Why me?" Erin asked.

"Because he likes you and won't kill you for breaking the news that we cost him money," Duncan said. Erin sighed and nodded her head. She jumped off the stage and jogged up the hill towards the main lodge. That was the last place she saw Chris. Even if he wasn't there, Chef liked her well enough when she brought up her older sister Lory. She entered the main lodge and sure enough, Chris was sitting there intently reading something on his laptop while wearing headphones and nursing a cup of coffee. She hesitantly walked towards him, almost as if she were about to wake up an angry bear or something. She shouldn't have been as nervous as she was. It was just Chris, after all. His eyes darted towards her as she neared the table he was sitting at and he quickly shut his laptop and took off his headphones.

"Yeah, brah?" He asked. "Whaddya need?" Erin gulped and took a deep breath. She just needed to break it to him easy. Stay on his good side. Complimenting his hair might work… no, that was too obvious. She didn't want to kiss up to him and then say, 'whoops we broke a spotlight.'

"So, uh, there might have been an accident on the stage," Erin started. Chris let out an exasperated groan and he ran a hand through his hair.

"Who did what and how much is it going to cost?" he asked.

"Um… Bridgette was doing a handstand and her foot caught on the rope holding up one of the spots," Erin said. "It also hit Courtney in the head and broke her violin. So… yeah, she's not going to be one of our people for the talent contest."

"And they sent you to break the news because they assume I actually like you, didn't they?" he asked with a smirk. Erin shrugged and nodded. "Well, they're not wrong. Like I've said before, you're not a psycho."

"They also said that you're less likely to kill me," Erin added, looking down as if her feet were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.

"I never shoot the messenger," Chris said. "I shoot the person who broke my spotlights, brah." Erin let out a small chuckle and finally looked back up. "So do we need a medic?"

"Probably, considering it was a head injury," Erin said. "And knowing Courtney, she'll try to get you to replace her violin." Chris nodded and motioned for the cameraman to go get the medic from the first aid tent.

"This is why I love contracts," Chris said with a snicker. Erin sighed and rolled her eyes. "What?"

"You and your contracts," Erin said. "I swear you love contracts more than your hair."

"Nope," Chris said. "Not even my love of contracts can compare to my love of my hair." Erin let out a laugh as Chris stood up and began to walk out of the main lodge. "Of course, I still have a weakness for hot girls."

"Like Lindsay?" Erin asked. Chris arched an eyebrow at her and smirked.

"No thanks," Chris said. "I like girls that have more than two brain cells." Erin opened the door and Chris walked through it first.

"I mean, same fam," Erin said. Chris let out a scoff at that and smirked at Erin.

"So, like, are you gay?" Chris asked.

"Pan," Erin answered. Chris looked a little confused at this, so Erin figured it was best to elaborate a bit more. "Basically, I can feel attracted to anyone regardless of what their gender identity is. It's not exactly the same as bisexual-"

"Because pansexual includes gender nonconforming people too?" Erin nodded and let out a small smile.

"Exactly," she said. "Thanks for not saying I'm attracted to kitchenware or that I'm basically just bi." Chris merely shrugged and smirked.

"Ally and proud, brah," he said. "Ally and proud." This made Erin smile a bit bigger. She had no idea why she thought he wouldn't be as open as he was. Then again, Chris seemed like the kind of person who was full of surprises. They finally reached the main stage, where the medic was already bandaging Courtney's head. He walked up to the scene and looked at the broken spotlight, to Courtney, and to Courtney's violin. "Well… I'm gonna need an intern to clean off the broken glass from the spot. I don't want lawsuits." A few moments later, an intern appeared out of nowhere with a broom and a dustpan. Chris shrugged, waved at all the campers, and immediately headed back up to the main lodge. Clearly he felt like the situation was handled.

"You," Courtney hissed as Bridgette walked up to the scene. The girl was cradling the shattered remains of her violin. "You killed my violin!"

"I didn't mean to!" Bridgette said. "There must be something we can do." Bridgette took the violin from Courtney and made a feeble attempt at putting the pieces back together. The violin shattered into even more pieces as it fell from Bridgette's hands. Erin winced at the loud wail that Courtney emitted before bursting into tears again. Now all they needed to do was figure out someone to quickly replace Courtney that wasn't Erin. Lovely…

* * *

In the end, they decided to go with Bridgette's handstanding as their talent, despite Erin's many objections and the fact that none of the Killer Bass had bothered to give Harold a chance to show what he could do. Erin was sitting in the stands with the rest of the campers that weren't performing, sketching as usual in her sketchbook. "It's the TDI Talent Extravaganza!" Chris suddenly shouted from on stage. Erin tucked her sketchbook into her jacket pocket and turned her attention to the stage. "Welcome to the very first Camp Wawanakwa talent contest, where six campers will showcase their mad skills and desperately try not to humiliate themselves. First up, for the Screaming Gophers, is Justin." All of the Gophers cheered as Chris exited the stage and Justin walked on.

The lights dimmed and then the spotlight shone on Justin. He posed in in a variety of poses, then sat down on a stood and pulled a lever, dumping an entire bucket of water on himself in a very _Flashdance_ -esque manner. The lights came back on and Erin slowly clapped her hands. What exactly was that talent? Was his talent just being hot? Yeah, he was hot, but was being hot really a talent worthy of a talent contest? "Okay, I don't know what that was," Chris said as he walked onto stage clapping, "But dang, you've got some moves, dude." Justin smiled and walked off stage. An intern ran on with a mop and mopped away as much water as he possibly could within about a minute and a half. "First up for the Killer Bass, make some noise for the big guy… DJ!" Erin let out a loud cheer as DJ took the stage. Duncan sat next to her, sulking as usual.

"Eff it up!" Erin shouted.

"Hoffman!" Chris shouted.

"Sorry!" she shouted back. Once again, she was going to cost him in edits. DJ leapt onto the stage, his pink ribbon floating gracefully behind him. He twirled the ribbon around, bourréeing across the stage. He went to leap through a circle of ribbon, but ended up getting his ankles tangled in the ribbon. He fell flat on his face while the rest of the Killer Bass winced. He managed to pull the ribbon off his ankles at the very end, and the pink ribbon float down, covering DJ's face.

"Dainty and yet masculine," Chris said as he walked on stage. "Let's see what Grandmaster Chef thinks." Chris gestured upwards to where Erin assumed the Chef-o-meter was eventually going to be placed during editing. Two dings rang out and Chris frowned. "Not much." DJ frowned and walked of stage, his pink ribbon almost sadly trailing behind him. "So with two down and four acts to go, it's the Screaming Gophers screaming ahead." Erin frowned and bit her lower lip. Geoff was really going to have to bring it. She doubted that walking around in a handstand was going to garner a lot of praise from Chef. "Next on deck, Trent! Take it away my bro." Trent walked onto the stage carrying his guitar.

"This one goes out to someone special here at camp," Trent said with a smile. He strummed his guitar and began to sing. " _They say that we've only got summer,_  
And I say that's really a bummer.  
But we'll swim in the sun and have lots of fun,  
It'll just be the two of us.  
Nothing to do but just hang,  
So let me say only this;  
I'd stick around for just one kiss." Trent played the last chords of the song that could have only been written by a teenage boy crushing on some girl and feebly trying to impress her. Erin couldn't help but nod and clap. He was going to be one tough act to follow.

"Nice work!" Chris shouted as he ran on stage and patted Trent on the back. The same dinging started up again in the background. "I'm liking your style dude, and so does Grandmaster Chef." Trent widened his eyes and waved at the camera. "All right, quit hogging my light, buddy." Chris shoved the chair and Trent went sliding off stage. "Three down and three to go, and the Killer Bass are totally sucking so far."

"If you hadn't made the amateur rule-" Duncan snorted.

"Please no," Erin squeaked out. Chris sent a harsh glare Duncan's way and looked back at the camera.

"Let's hear it for Bridgette!" Chris shouted. Bridgette walked out on stage on her hands and then let out a loud burp. Erin suddenly had a bad feeling as she watched Bridgette's cheeks begin to puff out like a chipmunks. She burped again, but this time puke came flying out of her mouth. Erin shuddered and turned away, covering her eyes. Erin heard Bridgette puke again and Owen screamed.

"I'm hit!" Owen shouted. She puked again, this time it landed closer to the Killer Bass. She heard Katie let out a long wail and then throw up, probably on Sadie. Erin let out a yell that resembled a pterodactyl screech and jumped behind the bleachers. No way was she getting puked on today.

"Hey puke on your own boyfriend!" Lindsay snapped. Erin peeked over the top of the bleachers and saw Bridgette laying in Tyler's arms.

"On your own _what_ , Lindsay?" Heather inquired with a glare.

"I didn't say boyfriend!" Lindsay squeaked out.

"Clean up in aisle three, four, five, and six," Chris said as he crept onto the stage, holding his nose shut and tiptoeing around the puddles of vomit. "In the meantime, we'll take a short break to hose the joint down." Chris jumped off the stage and looked at the campers that were covered in puke. "You all go ahead and change." Leshawna, Owen, Katie, and Sadie all jumped off and ran to their cabins to get cleaned up. Erin didn't blame them for bolting. It was all really, really gross. Erin stood up and attempted to climb back up to the top row of the bleachers from behind. This, of course, failed and she went crashing to the ground again.

"Erin, you're going to kill yourself at this rate," Chris called out. Erin let out a sigh and walked around to the front of the bleachers. Obviously jumping up the back wasn't going to work out like she wanted it to. When she came around, Chris immediately let out a huff and shook his head. "You're bleeding again, brah."

"What?" Erin asked. "Where?" Chris pointed to his left cheek and tapped it with his index finger twice. Erin brought her hand up to the same spot on her own face and touched it. When she looked at her hand, she saw a very thin line of blood. She merely shrugged and said, "It's just a flesh wound." Chris crossed his eyes at her and arched an eyebrow. "Seriously, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Worry about all the puke in the vicinity." Chris shrugged, appearing as though he thought Erin had made a good point. Erin looked up at the stage and saw that it was already almost completely cleaned up. She had no idea how they'd managed to do that, but she wasn't about to complain.

"We good?" Chris finally asked someone backstage. A thumps up appeared from behind the curtain and Chris jumped back up onto the stage. He motioned for the cameraman to start rolling. "Welcome back to the TDI Talent Extravaganza! Okay, so in a strange turn of events, Bridgette's chunk-blowing fest registered two thumbs up by Grandmaster Chef." Erin furrowed her brow in confusion. They actually got points for that? "But it's not enough to pull ahead of the Screaming Gophers, who hold the lead with Trent's love song. So without further delay, here she is for the leaders… Heather!" Chris gestured to the other side of the stage, where Heather strolled out wearing a tutu. She sat down at a stool with her hands behind her back.

"Originally, I was going to dance for you," Heather said. "But instead I want to celebrate team spirit with a collaboration." Heather smirked and took out a journal from behind her back. Erin dropped her jaw and widened her eyes.

"She wouldn't," she heard Gwen growl. Erin glared at Heather and shook her head. That was just wrong. That was just absolutely wrong to read out someone's deepest, personal feelings on national television.

"So with words by Gwen, performance by me, enjoy," Heather said as she opened up the journal. She cleared her throat and began to read. "Okay, so I'm trying to ignore him, but he's just so cute. If they had custom-ordered a guy to be a distraction for me here, it would've been McHottie. We just totally connect. He's pretty much the only person I can relate to here and I know it's a cliché, but I love guys who play guitar." Erin immediately looked over to Trent, the only guy on the island who could play the guitar. Gwen immediately slid off the bleachers and ran away as fast as she possibly could. "Thank you," Heather said as she snapped the journal shut. Erin let out a low growl and held up her middle finger at the stuck-up mean girl. Heather strutted off the stage, looking far too pleased with herself.

"Well then," Chris said as he walked onto stage. "It's down to the final act of the night. Can Geoff and his rad stunts turn it around? I seriously doubt it. Let's find out!" There was silence for a few moments and then Courtney appeared from backstage to whisper something to Chris. "Harold!" he called out. He motioned for the nerdy redhead to come up to the stage. Erin held back a groan. Did something really happen to Geoff or his skateboard? Really? An intern then brought out a microphone and Harold stepped onto the stage.

Suddenly, Harold started to beatbox.

And it was the most epic beatboxing that Erin had ever heard in her entire life. It was incredible to witness the various sounds coming from that boy's mouth. By the time he ended his set with a single, "Booyah," Erin's jaw was practically on the ground. The entire audience began to cheer wildly and scream at the amazing beatbox display they'd just witnessed.

"Wicked beatboxing, dude," Chris said. Erin heard that same dinging again from behind the stage and Chris pointed upwards. "Check it out. Grandmaster Chef has declared he's a winner. Even though they held the lead, the Screaming Gophers have been trampled by the Killer Bass." Bridgette and Courtney both ran onto the stage and hugged Harold. "And as for the Screaming Gophers, pick your favorite loser and I'll see you at the bonfire. Chef's got dinner waiting in the main lodge… so scram." Erin didn't need to be told twice. She gathered her sketchbook and colored pencils, hopped off the bleachers, and walked up to the main lodge, mentally preparing herself to consume any of the disgusting-ass food that she had no choice but to eat.

* * *

Sitting outside of the cabin, sketching in the dim lantern light had pretty much become a nightly tradition for Erin. At least, that's what Chris had observed. So, naturally, it had become an almost nightly tradition for him to walk up to her a chat while watching her sketch. "Why did I know?" Erin said with a laugh as Chris approached. He merely shrugged and leaned against one of the supports.

"It's habit now, brah," he said. "Deal with it." Erin laughed and rolled her pretty green eyes.

"Please tell me it was Heather who got the boot," Erin said. Chris winced and shook his head. Erin dropped her jaw in shock and very nearly slammed a pencil on the ground. "You're fucking kidding me."

"I wish I was," Chris said. "I mean, reading someone's diary to the world is messed up."

"No shit," Erin said. "Who got voted off then?"

"Justin," Chris answered. Erin frowned and shook her head.

"Damn," Erin murmured to herself. "How did he get that many votes?"

"I'm pretty sure Heather has an alliance going on," Chris said. Erin paused for a moment and seemed to think about the possibility.

"With Beth and Lindsay?" Erin asked. Chris nodded slowly. "That doesn't surprise me as much as it should. But I doubt it's an actual 'alliance.' She pretty much picked the two girls on her team that are least likely to question her."

"You're not wrong," Chris agreed.

"Kind of a shit way to play, to be honest," she said looking back down at her drawing. "I mean, I want that 100 grand as much as the next camper, but I'm not going to essentially cheat my way to it. I like to think I have more class than that. I mean, I know I'm not going to win, but still." That caught Chris's attention. She didn't think she actually had a shot at winning?

"Why do you say that?" Chris asked.

"It's mostly a gut feeling," Erin said. "I'm not the smartest contestant, or the most athletic, or fastest or strongest or whatever. My skillset comprises of fine motor skills and snarkiness. Neither of those things will really help me get to the final five."

"At this point in the game, it's hard to tell who it's gonna be," Chris admitted. "I thought Justin and Eva would last longer than they did." Erin shrugged and brushed off some lingering pencil dust from her drawing. Chris craned his neck and finally caught a glimpse of what she was drawing. It was an image of an elf woman with facial tattoos like the ones he saw in those Dragon Age videos and another bald elf man. Between them was a wolf with six eyes. "Well, it's gonna be hard to Heather to figure a way out of the next challenge."

"What's the next challenge?" Erin asked with a teasing smirk.

"Not telling," Chris said, smirking back. "It's not fun if I give it away, brah."

"I know, but a girl can dream," Erin replied.

"Don't hold your breath," Chris said. _Or in the case of my next challenge, hold your breath as long as you can._ He was enjoying that little inside joke. The next challenge was going to involve a lot of underwater filming… "Good night. Don't die; it's bad for your health."

"I never should have given you that one," Erin said with a chuckle as she rose to her feet. She gave a mocking salute, a quick, 'good night,' and disappeared into the Killer Bass cabin. Chris smiled to himself as he walked away from the cabin. A few moments later, Heather ran out of the Screaming Gopher cabin emitting the loudest, most annoying shrieks Chris had ever heard. Chris laughed at the sight. He heard a cabin door open and saw Erin peek her head out. "Karma, bitch!" Erin shouted. He guffawed even louder, trying to will himself to keep walking with his sides hurting as much as they were. Hopefully Erin wouldn't get eliminated anytime soon. He liked having her around too much.


	11. Don't Hold Your Breath Part 1

Erin was more than glad to be able to wake up without the sound of an airhorn plus Chris's voice over the camp intercom system. She was able open her eyes at her leisure when the thin tendrils of sunlight came through the curtain of the cabin windows. It appeared that none of the other Killer Bass girls were awake just yet. Sadie and Katie were weirdly snoring in complete sync with each other, though Erin had somehow gotten used to them always being in tandem with the other. Courtney was sleeping as stiffly as anyone would expect the uptight C.I.T to sleep. Erin couldn't see Bridgette from this angle, as she was in the bunk above Erin, but she as sure that the surfer girl was sleeping soundly, as relaxed asleep as she was awake. Erin got out of bed and stretched a large, long stretch. The first few nights she woke up sore from the terrible mattresses they were given. Now, she still woke up a little sore, but her body had gotten used to the hard, stiff mattresses.

Erin opened up her MineCraft suitcase and dug out a black ponytail holder from within, as well as a pair of jeans, her Dragon Age Inquisition jacket, and the Pikachu shirt her twin had given her before leaving Toronto. It didn't take her too long to get dressed, but she did so as quietly as she possibly could. She took the ponytail holder and slid it around her wrist. She needed a mirror if she was going to braid her hair like she wanted to. She slipped on her tennis shoes and grabbed her bag of art supplies. She was planning to take advantage of these early, peaceful hours and work on some nature sketching in the forest. But first, she was going to make a confessional-run while no one else was seemingly awake. It had been a while since she'd actually went to the confessional. She had a feeling if she didn't have a confessional rant soon, Chris would practically drag her there and make her talk to the little red dot within.

She opened the creaky door of the cabin as quietly as she could possibly manage, and shut the screen door with a loud screech. She winced at the loud sound, but it wasn't as if she didn't try to be quiet. Those hinges needed some oil really badly. Or replacement. Or perhaps even both. Erin heard the wooden steps creak beneath her weight as she ran down them and towards the confessional booth. Over by the forest line, she caught a glimpse of Chris jogging, a pair of headphones in his ears and his dark eyes locked in focus ahead of him. She waved at him, but he didn't appear to notice her and ran deeper into the forest. She shrugged to herself and walked over to the confessional toilet stall. She opened the rickety wooden door and let it click shut behind her. She sat down on the toilet and stared into the center of the camera. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the little red light blinking at her.

"So Total Drama Island has been..." Erin let out sigh and shook her head. "It's been an experience. I'm never going to forget this summer. Not to mention I have loads of stories to tell my friends or the internet... if I'm legally able to. That's more of a question for Chris, who will inevitably see this confessional video. These challenges haven't been as insane as the first one, you know when we jumped off a giant cliff into shark-infested water. But I have a feeling things are going to get crazier as time goes on because ratings, am I right?" She shrugged and gave two thumbs up at the camera. "Um... but I have to admit I'm a little homesick. It's still kind of weird to wake up and see four other girls around you who aren't your identical twin. And I, like, really want to sew something but I don't have the means to do that. And I don't even know what I want to sew, I just want to sew something. It's really, really weird."

Erin let out a chuckle and smiled at the camera. "Are you proud of me, Chris? I've made it this long without swearing. Let's see... confessions, confessions... Well, in terms of the other contestants, I think I've figured out by now who I like and who I don't. I feel like I'm getting on really well with Duncan, surprisingly. I honestly thought he and I would be on edge with each other, but he's a lot kinder than he tries to let on. Not to mention he has some pretty decent taste in music. I wouldn't have pegged him as a Gorgon City guy, but hey. You can't assume based on appearances. Um... Harold and I have some pretty cool nerd conversations. But he _can_ be kind of oblivious sometimes. DJ's pretty nice, Bridgette's chill and awesome. So is Geoff, too. I haven't spent a lot of time with the Gophers, but I've enjoyed talking to Gwen, Trent, and Owen. I feel like Owen's my biggest fangirl as of right now. Anytime we've talked it's been about my videos, which is awesome. It's always amazing for me to hear about someone liking what I do. It makes me feel like I'm not just uploading videos onto the interwebs for just me; it actually means something to someone else and it's just such an indescribable, fulfilling feeling."

"As far as who I can't fu- uh..." Erin stammered and winced at herself. She'd been doing so good on the language aspect so far. She almost slipped up. "Sorry, Chris! As far as people who I cannot stand in the slightest, we have Heather, the evil stuck up princess. Like, girl. Please stop with the attitude or I'll strangle you with yarn. Courtney, who has a perpetual pole up her butt. She doesn't annoy me quite as much as Heather does. Katie and Sadie and their constant squealing, oh my gah." Erin deadpanned at the camera and shook her head. "I just can't. They're giving me migraines. Tyler can border on misogynistic sometimes which pisses me off, but he's still not as bad as Heather. As for the rest of the contestants, I don't feel like I know them well enough for me to judge them. Maybe we'll see if I'm still around after this next challenge."

Erin looked around the confessional and thought about what to talk about next. For some reason, it was Chris who made his way into her brain. "It's kind of weird, but I think I'm probably getting along the best with Chris out of everyone. I'm ninety percent the other campers have noticed. It's almost become a nightly thing for the two of us to just talk while I'm sketching something. We find pretty much anything to talk about. Music, life, the other campers... it's kind of cool. There's a lot more to him than my fellow campers give him credit for. Of course, I doubt they're seeing the side of him that I'm seeing. At the very least, I hope Chris and I will stay friends after this show wraps up. Because I actually really like talking to him... you... I don't even know who's really going to watch this part of the confessional. Because most of this is never going to be seen outside of the editing room. I know when I do my videos, like eighty percent of what I film ends up getting cut. So maybe right now I'm more talking to Chris than anyone. Or maybe I'm talking to no one except myself. But if you are watching this, hit me up sometime after the show in Toronto. I can teach you the ways of Thedas. Or at least kick your butt in Mario Kart. Join World of Warcraft, be part of my guilds. I guess I should shut up now, so this is ErinysArt, signing out. I mean... Erin... I mean... you know what? Who really cares? This'll be edited out anyway. Bye all."

Erin stood up and opened the door of the confessional. She stepped out into the warm summer air and shut the door with a resounding click. She turned around and gasped loudly when she saw Duncan standing right there in front of her. "Oh, uh, hey Duncan," Erin said. She looked behind at the confessional and back to the punk kid. He stood there with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. "Um... how much of that did you hear?"

"Your rant about the campers you hated and your thing about Chris," Duncan said. Erin felt her face begin to grow hotter. She was blushing madly, she knew it. It was always an embarrassing thing to know that someone was eavesdropping on your confessional thoughts. "I'm not the only one who's noticed you are Chris are close."

"I mean, I do feel like we're getting to be good friends," Erin said.

"You sure that's all?" Duncan asked. Erin arched an eyebrow at the implication. "He _does_ tend to flirt with you."

"I doubt it's serious flirting though," Erin said. "That's just his personality. At least, that's what I've gathered."

"The only other person he's flirted with is Lindsay," Duncan pointed out. "And that's not anywhere near the capacity I've been noticing." Erin huffed and shook her head.

"Duncan, there's nothing going on with me and Chris besides friendly chatting," Erin said. "I don't see us as anything beyond friends. I highly doubt he does either. Okay?" Duncan put up his hands defensively.

"Alright, alright," Duncan said. "Just be careful, okay? Some of the Gophers already think that you have an advantage because of your friendship with Chris."

"Namely a certain bitch queen from hell who already hates me?" Erin asked with a smirk. Duncan nodded. She opened her mouth to talk, but sudden, loud airhorn sounded on the intercom system.

 _"Good morning, campers! Meet in the main lodge in fifteen for breakfast and your next challenge,"_ Chris announced.

"I guess that's our cue," Erin said. "Time for barely edible porridge-y stuff. Yum." Duncan let out scoff and rolled his eyes at her antics. The two of them walked towards the main lodge silently, Duncan's words still weighing on her mind.

* * *

Chris smirked as the campers filed onto the beach one by one. The only information about the challenge that he'd bothered to tell them was that they needed to meet by the docks at one pm and that they needed to wear their swimsuits. One of the first campers to show up was none other than Erin. She had a tendency of actually being on time for the challenges. He'd learned after the first challenge that whenever he gave a time for a challenge, it took at least half an hour longer for all the campers to actually show up. Erin was more reliable than her fellow contestants in that respect. She was wearing her Harley Quinn swimsuit and black shorts that she wore during the first challenge. He had to admit... she did look pretty damn good in a swimsuit. She walked up to him and looked around.

"Am I the only one actually on time again?" Erin asked with a teasing smirk.

"Yeeeep," Chris drawled.

"Fun," Erin said, crossing her pale arms. "Any way I'll get a sneak preview of the challenge? Or naw?" Chris let out a laugh and shook his head. "Damn. It was worth a shot, though."

"True," Chris said. "One of these days I'm going to start the challenge exactly when I say for you guys to meet. Anyone who's late will just have to deal and figure it out as they go."

"Do it, bro," Erin said with a small smile. "Maybe they'll finally get punctuality into their heads." Chris let out snort and nodded. They'd probably whine about him being unfair to them too. He knew there'd be whiny teenagers, but he honestly believed less of them would complain. He was always fairly glad that Erin didn't complain as much as the others; it actually made her likeable. Slowly but surely, the rest of the campers walked onto the docks. The last to wander onto the docks was Marco, the kid even Chris had a hard time remembering about.

"Alright campers," Chris said. "Now that you're all actually here, we can start the challenge. For this challenge, you'll all go underwater and hold your breath for as long as you possibly can. The team of the winner of wins the challenge." Of course, Chris wasn't about to tell them yet that today's challenge would technically be twofold. The top five campers who held their breath the longest would also be competing in an underwater race. The winner of that race would be the winner of the challenge and their team would avoid elimination. "Any questions?" Marco raised his hand, but Chris chose to ignore it. This was one of the easier challenges. What would he possibly have a question about? "Nope? Good. Get in the water."

Erin immediately ran of the dock and jumped into the water. That was another thing he liked about Erin; she rarely questioned the challenges. She preferred to go right in and do what she could to succeed. The rest of the campers, aside from Bridgette, Izzy, Duncan, and Owen, opted to wade into the water more slowly. Bridgette the surfer girl was definitely the strongest candidate to win this challenge. A Killer Bass win was more than likely. All the campers finally swam towards the edge of the docks. Below them was a long bar that they would have to hold onto in order to stay underwater. "Alright. When Chef blows the whistle, you all will go under," Chris announced. "Three, two, one..." Chef gave a loud whistle and the campers all dove below the water. Not even a second later, Marco reappeared on the surface.

"Dude," Chris said as he knelt down by the dock. "That wasn't even a second. What happened?" Marco merely shrugged and swam for the shore. The next to pop up was Lindsay. She merely looked over at Chris and tilted her head.

"Wait, what was the challenge again?" she asked. Chris facepalmed and shook his head. Lindsay may have been hot, but he wasn't sure there was anyone else on the planet who could out stupid this girl.

"You were supposed to stay underwater for as long as you could," Chris said, his face in a deadpan.

"Ooooooh," Lindsay said. Chris motioned for her to get out of the water, and Lindsay swam to the shore. A few seconds later both Sadie and Katie surfaced.

"Oh my god, that was like, so hard," Katie said.

"Oh my god, I know," Sadie agreed as she latched onto Katie's arm.

"And Katie and Sadie are both out!" Chris shouted. "That's two Gophers and two Bass." A few seconds later Tyler broke through the water line gasping for air. Chris wasn't completely surprised at the wannabe athlete didn't last too long. Given his waterskiing and dodgeball performance, he had a feeling that Tyler just tried to be a jock to get girls or something. Cody was the next to swim for the surface. Owen floated up a few moments later, a large amount of bubbles following his butt the entire way up. DJ, Geoff, Beth, Trent, and Harold all appeared simultaneously after Owen.

"We had to surface," Trent gasped as he swam for the shore. "Owen's farts just smell way to bad."

"If you were under there, you'd understand how much we needed to breathe," Geoff added as he hopped up onto the dock.

"I can get that," Chris said. "But you all still lose." The clock was at about a minute and a half now. It'd been at least fifteen seconds since another camper had risen from the lake. He was pretty sure all of them were fine. The camera guy they had down there would tell him if someone was drowning. In the back of his mind, Chris found himself silently rooting for Erin. Of course he'd never vocalize that. He had to remain impartial, at least technically speaking. Off camera and in the back of mind though, he could be as biased as he wanted to. Courtney appeared at the lake's surface a few moments later and took ing a huge gasp of air.

"Dang it!" She shouted as she swam for the shore. "I should have lasted longer, I'm a-"

"C.I.T," the rest of the campers chorused. Even Chris was starting to get annoyed with Courtney having to constantly remind everything that she was a trained C.I.T.

"We know!" Trent shouted. Courtney let out a growl and then walked up to the docks. Only Duncan, Leshawna, Heather, Gwen, Izzy, Bridgette, and Erin were left. Only two of them needed to surface in order for the other five to go onto the next portion of the challenge. They were verging on about a minute and half and no one had yet surfaced. A few seconds later, Duncan appeared above the water. That left one more camper. _Come on, Hoffman,_ Chris found himself thinking. _You can do this._ The next two to surface appeared almost simultaneously. However, Leshawna was the one to surface just before Gwen. Chris looked over at Chef, the other unofficial referee and he pointed to Gwen and nodded. Chris nodded once back. So it would be Gwen moving onto the next part of the challenge rather than Leshawna. A few seconds later Heather surfaced and swam silently to shore. She had a scowl on her face, clearing showing that she was pissed about not winning the challenge. Not that Chris particularly cared about Heather's feelings or her superiority complex.

"How long has it been?" Gwen asked.

"We're nearing two minutes," Chris said. He looked down into the water. He couldn't see how any of the last three campers were doing, but he was pretty sure everything was going well for Izzy and Bridgette. In all honesty, he was slightly worried about Erin being down there for so long. Bridgette was a surfer so she had experience with this and Izzy was just plain psychotic. Erin, on the other hand... Though Chris didn't need to worry much longer. At almost exactly the two minute mark, Erin broke through the surface.

"Oh sweet Jesus air!" Erin shouted, sounding extremely out of breath. A second later, Izzy emerged from the water. About a second after that, Bridgette appeared. All three girls swam towards the beach and made their way to the docks. Erin patting Bridgette on the back and said something to her that Chris couldn't hear. She was probably offering congratulations to the surfer girl. Of course, now Chris was about to reveal to them that this was only the first portion of the challenge. He couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces.


	12. Don't Hold Your Breath Part II

“Any questions? Nope? Good. Get in the water.”

Erin, being Erin, decided that instead of wading into the water like a normal person, she would just cannonball off the dock and swim over to the challenge zone. She always did enjoy swimming, especially whenever she visited her Aunt Peggy at her lakehouse in Wisconsin. When she broke the surface, she saw that she wasn’t the only one that had decided to just jump right in. Bridgette, Duncan, Izzy, and Owen all jumped in as well. The rest were slowly getting themselves used to the water and swimming over afterwards. Erin tilted backwards and let herself float as she waited for the rest of the campers. Even though this lake was filthy as hell, it was still relaxing to just float in. It took a few minutes, but the rest of the campers eventually swam to the end of the dock where she and the other campers that actually jumped in were waiting. “Alright,” Chris finally said. “When Chef blows the whistle, you all will go under. Three, two, one…” Chef let out a loud whistle. Erin took in a huge gulp of air and then dove below the water. She could hardly make out the forms of the other campers underwater, but she could tell that Bridgette and Izzy were near her, at the very least.

Erin heard muffled splashes and felt the water shift whenever someone surfaced. The first person (she had no idea who it was) didn’t even really go underwater. She closed her eyes and kept her head focused on staying underwater and not losing her breath. She used to have these kinds of competitions with her sisters and her cousins. Her mind drifted from art ideas to idle musings about what her family back home was doing to what challenges would be coming up next. Andrea was probably practicing her repertoire from the previous semester or visiting her new girlfriend that she met at McGill University. Erin wondered what Manon Taillefer was even like. She’d never met her… maybe she would meet her when she got back from Total Drama Island.

An awful stench plus the sounds of at least six people surfacing brought Erin out of her train out thought. She fought the urge to get a breath of fresh air. She was going to last as long as possible for the Killer Bass. No way was she going to let her team get on another losing streak; she knew her entire team felt the same way. One more person surfaced. She knew it had to be Courtney, given that everyone above water had simultaneously shouted, “C.I.T!” How many of them were even left? Erin squinted her eyes and made out six other figures. She knew Bridgette and Izzy were still in. She could make out Gwen and Duncan’s hair as well. It wasn’t hard to miss Leshawna’s yellow shirt. The mane of black hair a bit away from her told her that the seventh figure was none other than Heather. She watched as Duncan’s blurry figured moved upwards and disappeared out of site. It was up to her and Bridgette now. They had to outlast the other four Screaming Gophers if they wanted to win the challenge. Gwen and Leshawna disappeared to the surface almost simultaneously, evening the field below the water. Two Gophers and Two Bass. With Bridgette down here, Erin was almost sure that their fishy team would win this challenge almost designed for the Bass. Heather ascended above next, the ripples of her swimming flowing past Erin, Bridgette, and Izzy.

At this point, Erin’s lungs were almost on fire. If she could only hold out a little more… But deep down, she knew that she couldn’t last any longer. She needed air and she needed it now. She swam for the surface and immediately took in a huge gulp of air when she broke through the water. “Oh sweet Jesus,” Erin gasped. “Air!” Izzy surfaced next to her an instant later. Bridgette immediately followed, smiling brightly. She’d won them a challenge, after all. Who _wouldn’t_ be celebrating?

“We won!” Bridgette shouted. On the dock, the Killer Bass all cheered and celebrated their win.

“Actually…” Chris said. Erin’s smiled faltered and she immediately grew afraid. He better not tell them that this wasn’t the challenge. She would murder him in a sketch if that was a case. “This was just part one of the challenge.”

“What’s part two?” Bridgette asked.

“I’m getting to that,” Chris snapped. “For part two, the five of you who lasted the longest will do an underwater race!” Erin groaned and started floating on her back. That was the last thing she wanted to do right now. “Bridgette, Izzy, Erin, Heather, and Gwen, you five will all be participating in the race. The rest of you, go dry off and change. The five of you in the race, come to shore so I can explain how this’ll go down.”  Erin nodded and started to swim forward. She heard Bridgette and Izzy swim along next to her. Heather and Gwen were already on the shore, standing next to Chris. Erin let her feet touch the sandy bottom of the lake and started to walk to shore. Unfortunately, she tripped over her own feet and flopped face-first into the shallow water. Erin quickly sprung up to her feet and felt her face grow very, very hot.

“I meant to do that,” Erin said as she walked onto the shore.

“Sure you did, Hoffman,” Chris said with a laugh. Erin rolled her eyes and stood in the semi-circle forming around Chris. Next to her were Bridgette and Heather. On the other side of Heather was Izzy, who was standing next to Gwen. “Alright campers. So further down the beach, we have the race all set up. What you five are going to do is dive down to the bottom of the lake and race on the ladders across the bottom we set up yesterday. At various points on the ladders you’re going to be releasing colored buoys. It’s mostly so we know who’s where and when from on shore. You’ve all be assigned a color already. Bridgette, you’re yellow. Gwen’s purple, Izzy’s green, Erin’s blue, and Heather, you’re red.” Erin had a very strong feeling that the colors weren’t really randomly assigned by Chris. All of them seemed to match up with the predetermined colors fairly well. “You have to stay underwater the entire race. If you surface, you’re automatically out. You must also release every buoy, or you’re disqualified. It’s a race, so the end goal is pretty straight forward. First one to get to the end of the track and release their last buoy wins. We all clear?”

“Clear as mud,” Erin said. The other four campers near her all nodded their heads in agreement. Erin wasn’t entirely sure she liked the smirk that was currently resting on Heather’s face right now. She was more than likely cooking up some way to cheat her way to a win. Everyone knew how Heather operated by now. She just hoped that Heather ended up between Gwen and Izzy. Then she wouldn’t be able to mess with Erin or Bridgette. By now, the rest of the campers were slowly making their way back to the beach to watch the race portion of the challenge.

“You all go ahead out to your starting places. The crew just let the first buoys loose to mark the starting line,” Chris said, gesturing out to the lake. Erin turned around and, sure enough, there were now colored buoys floating in the water where there hadn’t previously been buoys. Erin resisted groaning out loud when she saw that color order was yellow, red, blue, green, and then purple. Heather was going to between both of the Killer Bass, which was probably exactly where she wanted to be. Erin waded into the water with Bridgette, both of them exchanging glances that told Erin they were both thinking the same thing. Neither of them wanted that conniving bitch between them, especially where it would be easy for her to mess with either one of them during the race.

Erin swam up to her buoy and looked down below her. The water was still relatively shallow, so the ladder would be easily in reach when they dove underwater. “Are you ready?” Chris shouted from the shoreline.

“Ready!” Heather called out.

“Good to go!” Bridgette said.

“Same, fam!” Erin shouted.

“Great!” Chris hollered. “On your marks, get set, dive!” Erin didn’t need to be told twice. She immediate dove below the water and gripped onto the ladder on the bottom of the lake floor. She moved as fast as she possibly could, keeping a careful eye out for the buoys to release them. A few rungs up, she found her first buoy and unlatched it from its holder. She heard the water churn on the other side of her and watched as Bridgette lost her grip on the ladder and floated up to the surface.

Oh shit.

Now it was completely up to Erin to win this race and Heather was definitely out for blood.

It was absolutely clear that Heather didn’t want another Screaming Gopher loss. Erin kicked her feet faster and unlatched each buoy that came out, not stopping at any point. She didn’t know which buoy would be the last and she didn’t particularly care. She just wanted to stay as far away from Heather and her wrath as possible. She couldn’t see all that far ahead of her through the murky lake water. She had yet to see any sort of indication of a finish light. Erin’s lungs were starting to burn from both holding her breath and how much energy she was exerting right now. She felt the water shift next to her and knew that Heather was catching up to her. She felt a hand grab her left ankle and give a sharp tug. Erin tensed her jaw and gave the offending wrist a hard kick. Heather let go of her foot and Erin sped forward. It was there, right in front of her; the last rung of the ladder and the final buoy to be released. Erin grabbed the buoy and set it free. She swam up to the surface and took in a huge gasp of air when she broke through the water.

Back on the shore, she heard a loud chorus of hollers and cheers. Erin couldn’t help but smile and let out a loud scream. “And Erin takes the win for the Killer Bass!” Chris called out.

“Victory for the Horde!” Erin shouted. Heather appeared from the water and shot a harsh glare Erin’s way. She was definitely on the bitch queen’s hit list now, but Erin was too excited with her victory to even care. She wasn’t about to let Heather ruin the one win she would probably ever get on this show. The moment her feet touched the lake bottom, she finally started to feel the fatigue in her legs. She shakily made her way onto the beach and immediately collapsed onto the sand. Her team crowded around her, offering their congratulations and a flurry of high-fives and fist bumps.

“Congratulations Killer Bass,” Chris said to them. “Gophers, looks like I’ll be seeing you at the campfire tonight.”

“Nice job, Erin!” Duncan said as he offered her a hand. She shook her head and kept lying down on the beach.

“I think I’m just going to lay down here for the next eighty years, guys,” Erin said. She felt out of breath and she definitely sounded out of breath as well. Part of her was sure that her lungs were never going to stop burning.

“Come on, Hoffman,” Chris said, nudging her with his foot. “Dinner awaits. Don’t you want some of Chef’s delicious food?” Erin rolled her eyes and groaned. Food sounded appealing. Chef’s food did not.

“I literally cannot feel my legs right now, guys,” Erin said. “Go on without me! Your dinner food is waiting.” Her team nodded and all turned around, heading towards the main lodge. Bridgette sat down next to Erin with a smile on her face.

“Congrats, Erin,” Bridgette said. “You earned it.”

“You totally would have won though,” Erin said. “Had it not been for She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.” Bridgette shrugged and stood up.

“Well, it is what it is,” Bridgette said. “We still won.” Erin smiled and nodded. Both Bridgette and Duncan started to head over towards the main lodge. The only people still on the beach were Chris and Erin. He nudged her with his foot once again and Erin groaned.

“Come on, brah,” he said. “I’m not leaving until you get up.”

“Why?” Erin asked.

“Because knowing you, you’d end up staying out here for the rest of the night,” Chris said. Erin let out a snicker and rolled her eyes.

“That may be true, but I’m still offended that you think so,” Erin replied. “Actually, no I’m not. There are worse things I could be doing here than sitting on a beach all night.” Though Chris did have a point; she probably needed food eventually, even if it _was_ Chef’s piles of tasteless goop. She let out a grunt of pain as she hoisted herself into sitting rather than lying almost lifelessly in the sand. “This is best you’re getting for now. My legs are too tired for any more than sitting.”

“That’s fine, brah,” Chris said. He sat down next to her, sitting with one leg stretched out and the other bent with his arm resting on his knee.

“Seriously, though,” Erin said as she watched him get comfortable. “Why do you want to chill here with me? Like, you have actual, decent, good-tasting food waiting for you.”

“True, but I like hanging out with you,” Chris said. “Like I’ve said before, you’re actually sane, brah. I can interact with you and not have the overwhelming desire to tear off your face.” Erin let out a laugh and shook her head. Some of the other campers gave her that urge too. Just wait until he saw her confessional… Suddenly, Erin heard Chris’s phone go off. The ringtone was some song that she’d never in her life heard before, but it was kind of catchy. Chris checked who was calling, widened his eyes immediately and then picked up.

“Yello,” he said. “Whaddya need?” Chris was silent for a minute, only letting out occasional ‘uh-uhs’ ever so often. Erin could only pick up on Chris’s half of the conversation. “Oh did I not leave that? Damn. I’ll go ahead and take care of that tonight. Listen, I gotta go. I just finished up a challenge… uh-huh… yeah… I already told you I can’t tell you anything… I am not lame!” Erin arched her eyebrow at this let out small chuckle. “Yeah, yeah,” Chris said, rolling his eyes. “Love you too, Sissi. Bye.” He hung up the phone and shook his head. Love you too? So maybe Chris wasn’t single like she thought? Wait, why did Erin even care if he was single or not? It wasn’t as if she was crushing on him or anything.

“Girlfriend?” Erin asked.

“Little sister,” Chris clarified. “Apparently I forgot to write the check for her tuition. Why she chose to wait so long to even check… That’s typical Sissi.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Erin said.

“Two. Well, technically half-sisters,” Chris said.

“Two?” Erin asked. Chris nodded.

“Not many people know about them,” Chris said. “My mom, step-dad, and I try to keep them out of the public eye. Let them be kids, you know? The fact that they have my step-dad’s last name helps with that.”

“What’s your other sister’s name?” Erin asked. “Sorry for being nosy. You can tell me to shut up at any time.” Chris let out a short laugh and shrugged.

“You’re good,” he said. “I feel like I can trust you to not blab about them to the press. Their names are Miriam and Sissi. They’re sixteen and thirteen.”  

“Damn,” Erin said. “That’s an age gap.”

“Yeah,” Chris said with a shrugged. “My mom had me ridiculously early and my sisters ridiculously late. Hold up…” He quickly took out his phone and started scrolling through it, as if searching for something. He finally turned the screen to Erin, showing her a picture of two girls. The older one had black hair and the same brown eyes as Chris. She wore clothes that all looked like they came out of Hot Topic and wore heavy black eye makeup. The younger had lighter brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a black dance leotard and a pair of grey sweatpants. In the middle was Chris, his arms draped on each of their shoulders. “We took that right before I left to do the show. Miriam wanted to see me before I was gone for two months.”

“Not Sissi?” Erin asked.

“Sissi already lives with me, so…” Chris said. Erin furrowed her brow in confusion and tilted her head to the side. “She goes to the National Ballet School. It’s easier for her to live with me and just bike to classes. Plus we save on tuition with her being a day student. She’s been living with me since she was eleven.”

“Gotcha,” Erin said. “That explains why you’re good at not swearing.”

“When an eleven year old starts living with you, you learn fast,” Chris said with a laugh.

“So the tuition check you forgot to write was for the National Ballet School?” Erin asked.

“Correctamundo,” Chris said. “So I should probably go do that. You know, so she can still follow her dreams.”

“I mean, that’s a good reason to spend that kind of money,” Erin said.

“I mean, I know I’m a selfish guy, but I won’t think twice about spending large sums of money for my sisters,” Chris said. “My parents cover their needs, I cover the pricier stuff. What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t?” Chris stood up and offered Erin his hand. She sighed, knowing that she probably should get up and get dinner. She took his hand and stood up. Though her legs still felt wobbly, she was able to stay standing alright. “I’ll probably see you again after elimination.”

“Yeah,” Erin said. “See ya later. I’ll probably be sketching something in the usual spot.” The two went on their separate ways, yet Chris wasn’t leaving her mind. Exactly the opposite actually… why did Erin care if he had a girlfriend or not? Why did she feel so much better whenever she talked with him about simple stuff? She paused and closed her eyes as the realization finally started dawning on her.  

Shit. _Shit._

Erin entered the main lodge and immediately grabbed Duncan by the arm. He stared at her in confusion as she practically dragged him out of the main lodge. She stopped outside of the lodge and let out a groan. “What is it?” Duncan asked.

“IthinkIhaveacrushonChris,” Erin said quickly.

“I didn’t get that,” Duncan said, crossing his arms in annoyance. Erin took a deep breath and paced for a moment. She stopped and looked back up at Duncan.

“I think I have a crush on Chris,” Erin said more slowly. She grimaced and started pacing again. “Fuck, I have a crush on Chris. I don’t know what to do about or even how to act around him with this newfound self-discovery-“

“Act the same as you normally do,” Duncan said. “I doubt he’ll notice.”

“But when I know I like someone I turn into an awkward pterodactyl,” Erin said, still pacing around. “Like, if I just stayed oblivious to my emotions, I’d be fine. But I’m probably going to be worrying about this for the entirety of the competition now. And I can’t exactly rant in the confessionals because he fucking watches them probably.”

“Erin,” Duncan said. “Just keep talking to him like you normally do. He flirts with you anyway. If you react like you have been, I doubt he’ll notice. Besides, I’m pretty sure he thinks every girl on this island has a crush on him. He won’t notice unless you tell him.”

“I am _not_ telling him,” Erin said. “He’s… what? Thirty? Thirty-one? I’m nineteen in like three days. I know it’s never going to happen. I know that I just need to wait for this crush to go away. If I will it away, it will leave… hopefully.”

“If you need someone to talk to, I’ve got your back,” Duncan said, pointing to himself. “And if you need me to keep you away from him, let me know.” Erin nodded and took a deep breath.

“Sorry for dragging you out here,” Erin said. “We should get food. Or you get back to yours and I actually get mine.” Duncan nodded and the two walked back into the main lodge for their dinner.

* * *

Chris wasn’t surprised that the Gophers eliminated Marco. In fact, Chris was more impressed with the fact that they actually remembered him. He was walking back to his own cabin when, as per usual, he saw Erin on the steps of the Killer Bass cabin sketching in her notebook. It was always interesting to watch her work; from the intensity of her focus to the rapid movements of her hands that seemed so natural to her. She never noticed when he was coming towards her; only when he showed up and spoke.

“Hey, brah,” Chris said as he took his usual seat next to her. Erin jumped and looked over at Chris.

“Oh, um, hey,” she said. She sounded a bit jitterier than usual tonight. Maybe it had something to do with her win or Heather. Erin let out a yawn and turned back to her sketch. It was still too early into the sketch for Chris to figure out what she was drawing. “So who’s gone?”

“Marco,” Chris said.

“Who?” Erin asked. She paused and shook her head. “Oh, right. Him. Well, I can’t say I’ll miss him. Still don’t know a damn thing about it other than that he’s forgettable.”

“Same, brah,” he replied. Erin let out another yawn and closed her sketchbook.

“I-I think I’m gonna turn in early tonight,” Erin stammered as she closed her sketchbook. “That challenge took a lot out of me.” Chris nodded, but narrowed his eyes at her. Her reasoning was sound, but how she was saying everything just seemed… nervous.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, just, you know. Bad anxiety day,” Erin said. “Good night.”

“Good night,” Chris said. Erin immediately stood up and scurried inside of the cabin. Chris shrugged to himself and got up, heading back to his cabin for the night. Her explanation seemed reasonable, after all. Her application even said that she had a history of anxiety. Maybe she was just having one of those days. He knew Sissi’s anxiety had seemingly random flare ups as well. He walked in the direction of his cabin, fully intent on having some peace and quiet without the psychotic teenagers bothering him.


	13. The Sucky Outdoors

Over the last three days, Erin had pretty much how to keep her crush on Chris nicely tucked away to where no one could possibly see it. She'd managed to hide away those butterflies in her stomach whenever he looked at her, managed not to stutter whenever she had to talk to him, and (hopefully) stopped blushing as much when he flirted with her as usual. At moment, as long as she was able to keep herself distanced from him when it wasn't their usual nightly chats, she was good at maintaining her composure.

At the moment, Erin was heading to breakfast in the main lodge. She had a feeling it was a going to be a good day for her. After all, today _was_ her nineteenth birthday. If only she could call Andrea and say "Merry Birthmas" to her, like the two had always done for as long as she could remember them talking. It was kind of weird to wake up, knowing it was her birthday and not being able to immediately wish Andrea a merry Birthmas as well. She may not have gotten a Merry Birthmas from her identical twin, but she did get something almost as awesome.

The moment she walked into the main lodge, all the campers jumped to their feet, shouting, "Happy Birthday, Erin!" Erin blushed and started laughing, placing both her hands over her heart.

"Thank you so much, guys!" Erin said. "How did you even know?"

"Because what kind of an ErinysArt fan would I be if I didn't know when your birthday was?" Owen said. He walked up to her and gave her one of his spine-crushing hugs.

"Thanks, Owen," Erin squeaked out. "Can I please have air circulation back?" Owen put her down and gave her a pat on the back.

"Erin, heads up!" Duncan shouted. Something wooden and circular was tossed her way. Erin, being Erin, attempted to catch it, only for it to slip out of her hands and fall to the ground. When she picked the wooden ball up, she noticed that it wasn't a ball after all, but a Pokéball. Erin squealed and ran up to Duncan, immediately hugging the juvenile delinquent.

"I love it!" Erin shouted. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem," Duncan said. "Consider it your gift from the Killer Bass. Harold came up with the idea. I just provided the application." Erin smiled at Harold and nodded.

"Thanks, guys," Erin said. "You're the best team in the multiverse." Her stomach suddenly growled very loudly. "I need to use the food. Be right back." Erin hurried up to where Chef was still serving up brownish-grey looking glop. Chef gave her a single nod as she approached him with her tray.

"Happy Birthday, little nerdy girl," he said before slapping a large spoonful of the glop onto her plate.

"Thanks, Chef," Erin said with a smile on her face. She didn't even care that this food was going to give her the urge to vomit. She sat down at the table and began to eat the slop, trying to ignore the taste and the texture like the rest of the campers. She was in the middle of a Pokémon-centric conversation with Harold when Chris practically threw open the doors of the main lodge and strolled inside.

"Morning campers," Chris said. "After breakfast I want you all to meet me at the fire pit at noon for your next challenge." He turned around to walk out, then paused and looked at Erin. "Erin, I wanna talk to you for a sec."

"Okay?" she asked. She stood up, leaving her half-eaten plate of slop at the table and walked towards Chris. She turned to team and shrugged before heading out of the door. When the doors to the main lodge shut behind her, she noticed that Chris had taken out his phone and was typing rapidly on the screen. He smirked at her and handed her his phone. "What is this?"

"Consider it a birthday gift," Chris replied. He leaned against one of the supports and crossed his arms. Erin looked down at the screen and widened her eyes when she saw the Skype logo. Especially when she saw that it was calling her twin's Skypename. Suddenly, the call was answered, and on the screen was Andrea, a girl with white-blonde who Erin assumed was Andrea's girlfriend, Manon, and both of her parents. The only ways Andrea and Erin could be told apart was the fact that Andrea wore contacts instead of glasses and their hair length. Andrea had way longer hair than Erin that was typically tied up into a bun. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman both had the same black hair as their daughters. However, Erin's father had much more grey in his hair than her mother. He also had significantly deeper age lines and wrinkles on his face.

"Oh my God!" Erin squealed. "Andrea!"

 _"Erina!"_ Andrea shouted back. " _Merry birthmas, womb-buddy!"_

"Merry birthmas to you too, womb-buddy!" Erin said back. In the background her parents laughed and shook their heads. Chris furrowed his brow in confusion and mouthed, 'womb-buddy?' to her. "Mom, thanks for birthing us!"

 _"You're welcome!"_ Erin's mom said back. _"It's so good to see you!"_

"I mean, same fam," Erin replied. The blonde Manon looked around awkwardly and then waved.

 _"Hi, I'm Manon,"_ she said with a laugh. _"Nice to actually meet you."_

"Ditto," Erin replied. "I've heard nothing but good things about you."

 _"I'd hope so,"_ Manon replied. _"Happy Birthday."_

 _"Wait, Manon, has to join in when we sing Happy Birthday to each other,"_ Andrea suddenly said. _"She can do the third! It won't be an open fifth anymore."_

"Okay," Erin said. Andrea nodded and counted down from three to one.

" _Merry birthmas to you, merry birthmas to you, merry birthmas dear twinsie, merry birthmas to you!"_ The sisters sang. Then they sang their traditional, " _Amen!"_ Because Erin was the only one of the three that had no training in singing, she sang the root of the chord. Andrea sang a note a fifth above that. Manon sang the third of the chord… however it was a minor chord that she sang. She then bent the pitch up a half-step, making it major. Andrea stared at Manon for a moment.

 _"Hey, you didn't specify major or minor,"_ Manon said with a shrug. _"So I did both."_

 _"Valid point,"_ Andrea said. _"But I know you just wanted to do a Picardy third, don't lie." Manon merely shrugged and giggled._

"Wait, so how'd this get set up?" Erin asked, looked up at Chris.

"Oh, I called your parents and we figured out a good time today," Chris said.

 _"Wait, Chris McLean is actually there right now?"_ Manon asked.

 _"Whose phone did you think she was using, Manny?"_ Andrea asked with a laugh. Chris rolled his eyes and walked up behind Erin, waving into the phone. Manon immediately dropped her jaw and stared at Andrea. _"You fangirling?"_ Manon nodded slightly, let out a squeak, and practically dove out of the frame. Andrea laughed and shook her head. _"I apologize for my girlfriend."_

"Normally dudes are the ones telling me that," Chris said with a laugh.

 _"Yeah, lesbians typically aren't that into you,"_ Andrea replied. _"Their bisexual girlfriends on the other hand…"_

 _"Happy Birthday, Moose,"_ Erin's father finally said. Chris's face twisted in confusion as he mouthed the nickname to himself.

"Thanks, dad," Erin said. "Get Andrea wasted enough for the two of us. Because I doubt booze will happen over here, right Chris?"

"Not today," Chris said. "But your parents already gave me permission so if I feel generous after the challenge…" Erin widened her eyes and dropped her jaw. She looked between both of her parents and squealed.

"Still get Andrea twice as drunk for me," Erin said. "But thank you so much!" Her dad let out a loud laugh and nodded.

 _"Will do,"_ he said. _"I'm the designated driver tonight. When you get back, I'll tell you all about what Caribou here does."_ Andrea laughed and rolled her eyes. _"We'll go ahead and let you go. Do good in challenges. Don't die. Don't murder anyone. Stay away from bears."_

"I promise all but the last," Erin said. "Because there are bears. And if they choose to attack me, well, that's their decision, not mine. Bye all! I love you! It was nice to meet you, Manon!"

 _"Nice to meet you too,"_ her voice said from off screen. Her sister, mother, and father all waved good-bye and then the Skype call ended. Erin handed Chris his phone back, still smiling uncontrollably.

"Thank you so much!" Erin said to him. Damn it, this was definitely one of the things that was making him more appealing to her by the day. Why did this asshole have to be so attractive? And nice to her? Chris merely smirked and tucked his phone back into his pocket.

"What can I say? I'm awesome like that, right brah?" Erin rolled her eyes at the comment. "As much as I like you, though, you're still not getting out of the challenge today. What fun would that be?"

"Oh never thought for a second that was," Erin said. "I didn't even expect to have contact with my family today. But seriously, thank you so much for even that. It honestly means a lot. Especially because twin and I've never had a birthday without her, you know?"

"Speaking of which," Chris said. "Moose? Caribou? Womb-buddy? Your family has weird taste in nicknames."

"I mean, considering my dad's pet name for my mom is Cheese Noodle…" Erin said with laugh. "No, but there _is_ an actual tale behind Moose and Caribou. Long story short, Andrea and I would wear these antlers and headbutt each other for fun when we were younger. Good times. Only one concussion." Chris looked like he was holding back a huge flood of laughter.

"I'll go ahead and let you get ready for the challenge. Not telling you what it is yet, but still…" Erin nodded and saluted. Chris let out a scoff and began to walk off. "Happy birthday, Hoffman!" he called out as he descended the stairs.

"Thanks bro!" Erin shouted back. He lifted a single hand to wave back at her, not even turning around as he walked to probably set up the next challenge. Erin groaned and leaned against the support column. As if she needed any other reasons to be crushing on this man right now… Hopefully the challenge would involve minimal amounts of Chris.

* * *

Erin sat on the ground in front of the fire pit, drawing Megara from _Hercules_ in her sketchbook as she waited for the rest of the campers to show up. Her legs were crossed and her elbows were resting on her knees in an attempt to keep her arm steadier. Right now, only Gwen, Harold, Izzy, and Courtney had showed up. Chris was leaning against his podium and chatting with one of the camera crew guys, waiting for the remaining campers to show up. Part of Erin was glad that he wasn't talking to her right now. Part of her also wanted talk to him more about everything and anything. Stupid crush…

By the time Erin had finished her sketch, all the rest of the campers had filed into the fire pit area. "Hoffman, book away," Chris said as he walked up to the rest of the campers.

"Already doing that," Erin said as she closed her sketchbook. "Sketch is all done anyway. So Megara from _Hercules_ is up for grabs." Chris let out a scoff and rolled his eyes. He motioned for the cameras to start rolling and then turned back to the contestants.

"Campers, today's challenge will test your outdoor-survival skills," Chris said. "I'm not gonna lie to you, some of you may not come back alive." Erin and the other campers all gasped and turned to each other. He wasn't serious… was he? Chris laughed and raised his hands defensively. "Just joking. All you have to do is spend one night in the woods. Everything you need is at your team's campsite in the forest. You just have to find it." Chris reached into a bag and pulled out two maps and two compasses. Duncan caught the Killer Bass's map and compass. Heather caught the Gopher's. Courtney shot Duncan a harsh glare, making it clear that she had wanted the compass, the map, and the power that came with both. "Oh, and watch out for bears. Lost a couple of interns in preproduction."

"You're not serious about that, right?" Erin asked. Chris simply winked at her, not giving any sort of identifiable answer. It was both attractive and concerning.

"The first team back for breakfast wins invincibility," Chris said. Courtney stood up and snatched the map out of Duncan's hand. Chris lifted an airhorn and let it sound out as loud as an average airhorn sounded. "Well, off you go." He turned around and walked off, leaving the twenty remaining campers behind.

"Did he say there were bears up in here?" Leshawna asked, her eyes wide.

"I had a little encounter with a bear once," Owen said, holding up a fist. "Let's just say his head looks real nice up on my mantel." Somehow, Erin wasn't entirely sure she believed him at all.

"Oh!" Izzy shouted. "This one time, I saw a bear eating our garbage. He had old spaghetti noodles hanging from his big, huge teeth, and it looked like blood and guts. It was so gross. And we thought he was eating the neighbor's cat Simba but it turned out he was just lost for a week." Lindsay looked like she was about to throw up. "Uh, you didn't eat spaghetti did you?" Lindsay gulped and shook her head. "Good! Let's go!"

"My only encounters have been with bears in Dragon Age," Erin said. "Not so bad in Origins and II. Terrible as all hell in Inquisition. Especially when you activate the Grizzly End trial that makes all of the bears stronger. Holy Jesus I hated that. But I got the Trial of the Hermit achievement and that's all that matters." The Killer Bass all just stared at her blankly, clearly not knowing what all she was a talking about. Erin sighed and slumped over. "Forget it. Let's just get to the woods and hopefully not get attacked by Slenderman in the night. Remember, if you see notes, don't touch them and don't let your flashlight die." Without another word, Courtney opened the map and the compass and set off. The rest of the Killer Bass followed behind her, hoping that they would be able to find their campsite and survive the night in the woods. And not run into any bears. Because bears were bad. And so was Slenderman.

* * *

By the time the sun was setting, the Killer Bass had all managed to make it to their campsite. Right now, Erin was helping Geoff, Bridgette, and Courtney pitch the tent. Harold and Duncan were working on starting the fire. DJ had been sent out of find food. Tyler was… well, Erin wasn't entirely sure what Tyler was doing with their team's pack. "Wow, you pitch a tent like a guy," Geoff said to Bridgette. She looked up at him in a total deadpan. Erin sighed and shook her head. There was a right and a wrong way to flirt with someone you were crushing on. Telling her she pitched a tent like a guy was definitely the wrong way. "I mean, you're not all girly about getting dirty and stuff."

"Gee," Bridgette said cooly. "Thanks."

"Oh Padawan, you have much to learn about the ways of the force…" Erin muttered to herself.

"What's for dinner, woman?" Duncan asked. "I'm starving."

"I hope you don't expect me to dignify that with a response," Courtney snapped. Erin narrowed her eyes at Courtney. She literally just responded to Duncan?

"Hey guys! Look what I found!" DJ called out. Erin peeked over the tent and let out a squeal at the sight she saw. There stood DJ, holding a small adorable little bunny in his arms.

"Oh my gah, it's a lil floofle!" Erin squeaked.

"Well, I never had rabbit stew before, but what the heck? I'm game," Duncan said.

"Noooo!" Erin moaned.

"This is my new pet," DJ said, pulled the bunny away from Duncan's sight. "I'm calling him Bunny."

"You realize that's like naming a cat Kitty, right?" Erin asked with a laugh.

"So you couldn't find any food?" Courtney asked him. "Then it looks like we're eating grubs and berries for dinner."

"Well we could always resort to cannibalism," Erin said. "I say we eat Tyler first." Tyler widened his eyes and immediately jumped into the tent. "I was just kidding! Mostly…"

"Hey, has anyone seen Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-idiot?" Duncan asked. Erin froze and looked around the campsite. Come to think of it, Erin wasn't entirely sure when she last saw Katie and Sadie. Had they even been to the campsite? No wonder it had seemed so quiet…

"We could look for them?" Erin suggested. "Or we could stay put and hope they find their way. Or see the smoke from the fire."

"I say we let them be," Courtney said. "It's their own faults for getting lost." For once, Erin could agree with Courtney's sentiment. Harold let out a cheer as the fire finally roared to life. Erin smiled and sat down in front of the fire. The rest of the Killer Bass (minus to two missing Best Female Friends for Life) sat down around the fire. An owl hoot and Bridgette gasped, looking around her in fear.

"Be cool," DJ said. "It's just an owl."

"Yeah," Erin said with a smile. "Unless you're a small rodent, you're good."

"Sorry," Bridgette said, wrapping her arms around herself. "I just get really freaked out in the forest."

"This reminds me of this really scary story I heard once," Duncan said.

"Awesome," Geoff said. "Tell it, man!" Erin tried to meet Geoff's eyes and shake her head, signaling him to abort mission. He really was terrible at reading the girl he was into. Erin suddenly paused. What if she ended up being really obvious about what she felt for Chris? That would be a horror story in and of itself.

"Are you sure?" Duncan asked. "Because the story I'm thinking of is pretty hardcore."

"Is it as bad as Amnesia, Dead Space, Five Nights at Freddie's, Silent Hill, or imscared?" Erin asked. "Because those games… I still have nightmares about them to this day."

"Ooh, we're so scared," Courtney said with a dramatic eye roll.

"Alright," Duncan said. "But don't say I didn't warn you." He leaned over the fire and smirked. "One night, a lot like this one…" Erin listened to Duncan tell this story, she wasn't getting nearly as freaked out as the rest of the campers, but she couldn't deny that her heart was racing a bit. She took out her sketchbook as Duncan spoke, sketching out how she imagined the young couple he was describing. "So suddenly they heard this tap, tap, tapping on the side of the car. The girl started to freak out and by this time, even the guy was getting a bit scared. So he turned the car on and he stepped on it. When they got back to the girl's house, she opened the door and screamed because there, hanging from the door handle, was the blood hook!" Erin immediately sketched out a curved hook, much like the one that Captain Hook would be wearing on his missing hand stump. "They say that this killer is still alive, wandering these very woods. He could be just about anywhere really. Maybe even right here!" Duncan pulled out his hand from behind his back, letting out a scream as he revealed the hook he was holding in his hand. All of the Killer Bass, including Erin, screamed. She hid behind her sketchbook and clenched her eyes shut. That asshole… Duncan let out a maniacal cackle as he practically doubled over.

"Duncan! That was so not funny!" Courtney shouted.

"I don't know, it kind of was," Erin said as she lowered her sketchbook.

"It totally was!" Duncan said, still laughing. "I just wish it was all on camera. Oh wait! It is!" He pointed to the cameraman that was hanging around their campsite and doubled over laughing again.

"You are so vile!" Courtney snapped. She shot Erin a harsh glare and said, "And you! Encouraging him." She turned back to Duncan and asked, "Do your parents even like you?"

"I don't know, Jumpy McChicken," Duncan said almost dismissively. "I haven't asked them lately." A loud howl rang through the night and Courtney gasped, jumping into Duncan's arms. Geoff shot Duncan a quick thumbs up. Erin rolled her eyes and closed her sketchbook.

"I'm gonna hit the hay," Erin said, tucking her sketchbook into the team's backpack. "Night y'all."

"Night," Duncan said. Erin climbed into the tent and laid down on the thin padding they had. She took off her jack and balled it up into a feeble attempt at a pillow. She tucked it under her head, took off her glasses, and closed her eyes in an effort to actually fall asleep and get some rest tonight.

Unfortunately, that didn't last very long at all. A couple of hours later, Erin was woken up by the screams of the rest of the Killer Bass. She put on her black, thick-rimmed glasses and watched the flailing figure of Bridgette's shadow. An instantly later, the tent had burst into flames and then disappeared completely. Everyone on the team shot Bridgette a harsh glare, save for Duncan who was still fast asleep. "Great," Courtney hissed. Duncan was starting to finally wake up. "That's just great, Bridgette! Now we have nowhere to sleep!"

"Yo, Drama Queen, relax," Duncan said, holding up a hand. "It's cool."

"Cool?" Courtney snapped, crossing her arms. "It's cool!? Things could not possibly get worse!"

"That was a mistake to say," Erin said. The next moment thunder sounded, lightning flashed, and a torrential downpour began. Courtney screamed and clenched her fists. "Yep. See? I knew it. Thank you, nature, for this birthday gift. It's far better than the period cramps you gave me and Andrea last year." DJ grabbed a branch from one of the nearby pine trees and held it over the Killer Bass. Not that it was doing anything at all to keep the rain off of them. Erin sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, knowing that she wasn't going to get any sleep at all that night. Yet somehow, she did. She didn't remember when she closed her eyes. She didn't even remember falling into a dreamless sleep. She just kind of did.

* * *

Erin groaned as someone began to nudge her awake. "Yo, Erin, wake up."

"Shut your whore mouth, bitch," Erin muttered as she rolled onto her stomach. She felt the foot nudge her in the side again and she moaned, slowly rising to her feet. She looked up at Duncan, who was smirking to himself. "Wait. Challenge is a thing."

"That's right," Duncan said. Erin immediately felt more awake and grabbed the team's backpack. The rest of the Killer Bass were already starting to run through the woods back to the site of Camp Wawanakwa. Erin and Duncan immediately started running to catch up with them. Hopefully they could make it back before the Screaming Gophers did. Erin didn't want to lose another challenge yet. The Bass had two straight wins so far. She wanted to make that a threepeat.

The trees seemed to blur around Erin as she ran with the rest of her team through the forest. Erin felt her adrenaline spike when the fire pit came into view. She ran harder and faster. When they reached the fire pit, Erin fell to the ground and raised two thumbs up. "We're the first ones back!" Courtney shouted. A few moments later, the Screaming Gophers ran up to the site, groaning when they saw the Killer Bass. Though one thing that confused Erin was the bear costume Izzy was wearing. Where did she even get that?

"Oh no!" Heather shrieked. "They beat us here." She turned around and glared at Owen and Izzy. "This is all your fault!" Erin wasn't entirely sure of what had happened with the Gophers and she completely sure that she didn't want to know. Heather shoved Owen over and he fell to the ground with a hard thud.

"Ah ah ah!" Chris said with a smirk. "Not so fast, Gopherinos. It seems that the Killer Bass are missing a few fish." Erin furrowed her brow in confusion. They weren't missing anyone. Everyone that was at the campsite was-

Oh. _Oh._

Katie and Sadie were still missing.

Not all the Bass were back.

Which meant that the Gophers won.

Fuck.

"Oh, you mean Katie and Sadie?" Courtney asked. "We're pretty sure they got eaten by wolves last night."

"Darn shame," Duncan said, not sounding upset about the loss of the two squealers at all. All of a sudden, Erin heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She sat up and glared as both Katie and Sadie came into view.

"We made it!" Katie breathed out.

"We're safe!" Sadie shouted. "Oh my gosh, guys. We got totally lost and then got in this massive fight."

"And there was this huge bear and he was all, 'RAAAAWR! You're in my crib so get out!'" Katie added.

"And we had to run, and it was, like, so scary," Sadie said.

"Oh, Sadie, I'm so sorry I said was prettier than you," Katie said.

"And I'm sorry I brought up the Snack Shack," Sadie said.

"And I'm sorry I said your butt was too big to fit in the bus seats," Katie said.

"You did?" Sadie asked.

"Um… well… not to your face," Katie said with a blush.

"Oh, who cares? We're safe!" Sadie said with a big smile on her face. She hugged Katie tightly and squealed. "And you're my best friend and I love you!"

"Oh, I love you too!" Katie squealed too. Courtney rolled her eyes and approached the two girls, clearing her throat.

"Are you two finished with your little love fest?" Courtney asked. Katie and Sadie both nodded their heads, oblivious to the very pissed of Killer Bass. "Good. Because thanks to you, we just lost the challenge!"

"Alright, Killer Bass," Chris said. "One of your fishy butts is going home. Gophers, you're going on an all-expense-paid trip to the tuck shop!" Erin groaned at the thought of the snacks and hygiene products that she could have gotten if the Bass had won the challenge. And everyone knew exactly which Bass were to blame. "Bass. You know when to be here. See ya later." All of the Killer Bass sharpened their glares at the two girls. Katie and Sadie both blanched and gulped, knowing that they were in deep shit.

* * *

Night had fallen and Erin was very sure that the rest of the Killer Bass had made the same decisions as Erin. Either Sadie or Katie was going home tonight; that much was assured. It just depended on which on of them ended up with more votes. Erin knew she voted for Katie. Based on the story that she'd heard, it was more Katie's fault that she and Sadie had ended up away from the rest of the Killer Bass. "Welcome Killer Bass," Chris said. "Well this sucks for you guys. Especially Erin. Losing a challenge on your birthday? Ouch."

"Meh," Erin replied. "It happens. I almost got hit by a car on my sixteenth birthday, so all in all not the worst." For a moment, Chris widened his eyes, looking very concerned. He almost immediately went back into his host mode and brought out the tray of marshmallows.

"Campers," he said. "You've all cast your votes. The camper who does not receive a marshmallow must immediately hit the Dock of Shame, grab the Boat of Losers, and get the heck out of here. And you can't come back. _Ever_. Now, I can see you're all tired, so tonight I'll just throw them to you. Savvy? First, the birthday girl." Erin raised her hand as the marshmallow went flying towards her. To her complete and utter shock, she actually caught it. She dropped her jaw and stared at the marshmallow. It had to be magic. There was no other explanation for Erin successfully catching a flying object. "Courtney. Duncan. Bridgette. DJ. Harold. Geoff. Tyler." Katie and Sadie clung to each other, knowing that one of them was going home and that they'd be separated. "Ladies, this is the final marshmallow of the evening." Chris paused and then threw the marshmallow. "Sadie," he said.

"No!" Sadie shouted. "Why Katie? Why her?"

"It's so unfair!" Katie moaned, burying her face in her hands.

"I so can't do this!" Sadie said. "I've never been anywhere without Katie! We have to be together or I'll totally die!" Erin rolled her eyes and somehow ended up looking at Chris, who was giving her the exact same look of annoyance that Erin was giving him. She couldn't take these two anymore. She couldn't. And she was definitely about to snap.

"I have a twin that's miles away from me right now!" Erin snapped. "An identical twin! We do almost everything together, we shared a womb together, so I get being close and sisterhood and all that. But you two have major codependency issues that are frankly concerning and not at all healthy. So get over yourself and learn some damn independence!" Chris started laughing and smiled at Erin.

"Well said, brah," Chris said. "Well said."

"Sadie, listen to me," Katie said, taking Sadie by the shoulders. "You can do this. You are strong and beautiful, and, like, maybe even smarter than me. And plus, you're, like, the funnest girl I know! You have to do it for both of us."

"Katie, it's time to hit the Dock of Shame," Chris said. "The Boat of Losers awaits." Katie nodded and stood up walking from the fire pit to the dock. Sadie stood up and followed her, sobbing the entire way there. Erin followed the rest of the Bass and watched as Katie boarded the boat. Sadie laid down on the dock bawling her eyes out as the Boat of Losers and Katie sailed away into the horizon.

"I miss you already!" Sadie called out.

"I miss you more!" Katie shouted.

"No I miss you more!" Sadie shouted.

"No way!" Katie responded, her voice fading more and more. "I totally miss you more!"

"I miss you infinitely more!" Sadie shouted. She started flailed her arm around in a really terrible attempt at a wave. "Bye!" Chris sighed and shook his head at the sobbing Sadie.

"It's kind of sad," Chris said. "And not in sad way. Just in a really pathetic one."

"Yeah…" Erin agreed.

"You heading back to the cabins?" Chris asked. Erin shook her head and looked at the fire pit.

"Nah," she said. "I think I'm actually gonna roast this marshmallow. Or burn it. I don't know. But I think I should actually socialize with my team tonight."

"That's cool, brah," Chris said. He lightly touched her shoulder and said, "Night." He walked past her off the docks, disappearing into the night back to his probably luxurious cabin. That asshole. Erin took one more look at the sobbing Sadie before shaking her head and heading back to the campfire, ready to eat a warm marshmallow.


	14. Phobia Factor Part I

Erin sat at the fire, watching the charred remains of her marshmallow bubble against the wood. She opted for burning the delicious sugary treat. It was actually really pretty. Maybe she’d draw it. She wasn’t sure. She looked up when she heard the sound of wailing and watched as Bridgette led a still-sobbing Sadie to the campsite. She was straight up clutching a piece of the dock. That wasn’t going to make Chris happy. Bridgette seated Sadie on one of the tree stump, where the girl then proceeded to hug the piece of dock and continue to sob hysterically. Erin rolled her eyes and stared into the fire, finding it hard to have much sympathy for Sadie. Those two seriously did need to learn how to be independent from each other. “It was a long goodbye,” Bridgette said as she sat next to Courtney.

Then something unexpected happened. Erin looked up and saw the approaching silhouettes of the Screaming Gophers. Courtney let out a huff and stood up. “What do you all want?” Courtney demanded. “Come by to rub it in?”

“We got some extra dessert after our tuck-shop party,” Trent said. Beth held up the plate of green gelatin with a gummy worm inside. “Thought you might want some.”

“So what? You’re just being nice?” Courtney asked.

“Okay,” Gwen said. “Owen stank up our cabin and we need some time to air out.” Owen then proceeded to part. Erin wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Ew, dude!” Trent groaned. Beth walked up to Courtney and held up the desert. Courtney immediately recoiled and shrieked.

“No!” she screamed. She cleared her throat and attempted to regain her composure. “I mean, no, thanks. I’m good.”

“What? Are you on a diet or something?” Duncan asked.

“No!” Courtney snapped. “I just don’t like green jelly, okay?” Beth brought the desert up to Duncan and DJ next. DJ immediately let out a screech and swatted the plate far away.

“SNAKE!” he shouted. The desert went flying and landed on the ground, jelly pieces scattered everywhere.

“Chill dude,” Cody said. “It’ just a gummy worm.”

“Sorry for tripping,” DJ apologized, slouching over. “Snakes just freak me out.”

“I feel you,” Tyler said. “Chickens give me the creeps, dude.”

“Chickens?” Erin asked.

“You’re afraid of chickens?” Gwen asked. Duncan started snickering at Tyler.

“Wow, that’s really lame, man,” Duncan said.

“I know I have this really, really giant fear of being covered in bugs,” Beth said as she sat down. “The idea of all their slimy legs all over just…” Beth shuddered. Erin had to admit that it did sound really cringey.

“So what all is everyone afraid of?” Erin asked.

“Ninjas,” Harold said. “Those guys could kill a man before he knows they’re there.”

“Spiders though,” Leshawna said with a cringe. “All those legs just make me… urgh!”

“Sumo wrestlers,” Heather admitted. Erin widened her eyes in shock. Heather was actually admitting one of her greatest fears? “Don’t ask me why. I’m not telling.” She turned to Gwen and asked, “What about you Goth Girl?”

“My greatest fear?” Gwen asked. She paused and thought for a moment. “I guess being buried alive.”

“Walking through a minefield in heels,” Lindsay said.

“Flying, man,” Owen said. “That’s some crazy stuff.”

“I would never go up in a plane,” Izzy said. “Never.”

“I’m scared of hail,” Geoff said. “It’s small but deadly, dude.”

“Being left alone in the woods,” Bridgette said. Sadie sniffled and clutched the piece of dock tighter to her chest.

“Bad haircuts,” she said.

“Oh okay, I change mine,” Lindsay said. “That’s so much scarier than a minefield.”

“Cody?” Erin asked. Cody thought for a minute, tapping his chin with his index finger.

“Having to defuse a time bomb under pressure,” he finally said.

“I’m not really afraid of anything,” Courtney said.

“Baloney,” Duncan scoffed.

“Oh really?” Courtney challenged. “What exactly is your phobia, Mr. Know-It-All?” Duncan widened his eyes and looked around. Finally he sighed, acknowledging that he’d have to tell.

“Celine Dion music store standees,” he muttered. Erin dropped her jaw. He was afraid of what now?”

“Ex-squeeze me? I didn’t quite get that,” Cody said.

“Dude, did you say Celine Dion music store standees?” Trent asked.

“Ooh, I love Celine Dion!” Lindsay said. She paused and asked, “What’s a standee?”

“You know, that cardboard-cutout thing that stands in the music store,” Trent said.

“Don’t say it, dude!” Duncan snapped.

“Kind of like a life-size but flat Celine,” Trent continued.

“So if we had a cardboard standee right now…” Courtney mused.

“Shut up!” Duncan snapped.

“ _And I-I-I-I-I-I-I will always love yo-o-o-ou!”_ Erin started singing.

“Erin!” Duncan growled. Erin raised her hands defensively and then stuck them in her jacket pockets. “What about you?” Erin paused and sighed.

“I’m about to get really heavy here,” Erin said. Her greatest fear was something she had to deal with anytime she was at a convention in cosplay. “So in the past I’ve had issues with guys not getting that me being in a kind of revealing cosplay doesn’t give them permission to grope me. I’ve had dudes grab my boobs, my ass, grinding on me at the Saturday night raves… There was even one occasion when a guy straight up took his dick out of his pants and started jerking off at me.”

“Oh my god!” Courtney gasped, covering her mouth.

“Yeah,” Erin said. “I guess my biggest fear is that one day some asshole will decide that he gets to majorly sexually assault me.” She cracked a half-hearted smile and said, “So remember kids, cosplay is not consent.”

“That is heavy,” Trent said. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with that.”

“It is what it is,” Erin said. She turned to Trent and then smirked. “So what about you?”

“Okay, well, I hate mimes, like, a lot,” Trent said. Erin nodded. Mimes really were kind of freaky. Courtney, on the other hand, rolled her eyes. “Alright Courtney, you’re afraid of something. Spit it out.”

“Nope, nothing,” Courtney said, placing her hands on her hips.

“That’s not what she said last night,” Duncan muttered.

“Duncan, did you ever consider that maybe I was just humoring you and your stupid story?” Courtney asked, crossing her arms.

“Sure, sure, Princess,” Duncan said with a smirk. “Whatever floats your boat.”

“Shut up!” Courtney snapped. “I’m going to bed. Good night.” She got up and stormed off in the direction of the Killer Bass cabin. Heather turned to Erin with a smirk on her face; a smirk Erin didn’t like at all.

“So you and Chris have gotten close,” she said. Erin felt her heart stop for a moment. She played it off by rolling her eyes and shrugging.

“We get along well,” Erin said. _Please let it go, please let it go, please let it go._

“How well exactly?” Heather asked.

“We’re just friends,” Erin clarified. “No more, no less. No need to worry, Queen Bee. I have zero advantage.” Heather let out a ‘hmm’ and turned to Beth and Lindsay.

“Come on, girls,” she said. “Let’s go.”  Erin let out a sigh and shook her head.

“I might as well head out,” Erin said. “Night all!” She stood up and headed towards the Bass cabin. She needed to use the sleep badly, especially after not getting any sleep at all the previous night. She couldn’t wait to be in her nice warm bed, actually able to sleep without pesky rain.

* * *

Erin sat in the main lodge, sketching in her sketchbook as usual. She hadn’t eaten much of her tasteless white mush or grey pseudo-sausage, but she had never been a huge breakfast eater so this wasn’t atypical for her. She was brought out of her sketching trance by a loud, sharp whistle. She looked up and saw Chris standing in front of the two tables, a smirk gracing his face and his hands behind his back. “Campers,” he said, his voice completely in his TV Host mode. “Your next challenge is a little game I like to call Phobia Factor. Prepare to face your worst fears.”

“Worse than this?” Leshawna asked, holding up her hairy grey sausage.

“We’re in trouble,” Gwen muttered.

“Now for our first victims,” Chris said. “Heather meet us all in the theater. It’s sumo time.” Heather spat out her drink into Trent’s face. Everyone gasped and looked at Heather. Erin gulped and widened her eyes. That was the fear that Heather had named last night. “Gwen,” Chris continued, looking at a sheet of paper. “You, me, the beach, a few tons of sand…”

“Wait,” Lindsay said. “How did they know those were your worst fears?” Gwen facepalmed and groaned.

“Because we told them,” she said.

“At the campfire last night,” Trent added.

“Wait, they were listening to us?” Lindsay asked. Erin let out whimper as she remembered the fear she had named the previous night. Oh no. Oh _no._ Please let Chris be merciful on her and not do anything bad.

“It’s a reality show, Einstein,” Gwen said, burying her head into her arms on the table. “They’re always listening to us.”

“That’s like eavesdropping!” Lindsay shouted.

“Chef Hatchet, didn’t you have a special order for Tyler here today?” Chris asked. Chef smirked and walked out of the kitchen, a whole fried chicken sitting inside the fryer basket. Tyler picked it up and cringed. Tyler clenched his eyes shut and then bit off the head of the fried chicken. He pulled back the fried chicken and looked at it, only to find that a very much alive chicken had now poked its head out of the fried shell. Tyler stared at the chicken and screamed. Erin froze and looked up at Chris.

“Um, Chris? I have concerns about the challenge I will end up getting,” Erin squeaked out.

“Yeeeah,” Chris said. “I need to talk to you about that. The one named last night I can’t really do. You know. Because legal reasons. Also that’s something that I actually do have moral objections to.” Erin let out a sigh of relief and slouched forward. Oh thank God.

“Thank you,” Erin breathed out.

“So what’s your next biggest fear that I can actually do on national television?” Chris asked. Erin paused and thought for a moment. She shuddered at the thought of her next biggest fear on this earth.

“Baby dolls,” she said with a cringe. “Those things are so creepy. Like, I’m convinced all of them are possessed.” Chris smirked and let out a chuckle.

“That I can do,” Chris said. He took out his phone and typed a few things before putting it back into his pocket. “Beth, you’re up. Everyone follow me.” All of the campers looked around at each other and stood up, ready to follow Chris out of the lodge to face Beth’s worst fear; being covered by bugs. Erin was curious as to how they’d do that. Would it be all Fear Factor-esque? Or would Chris do this in his own unique Chris way using extremely cheap props?

The answer was definitely the second. They left the main lodge and saw an inflatable kiddy pool filled with what appeared to be worms or centipedes. Or both. Erin wouldn’t put it past Chris to do both. DJ took one look at the kiddy pool and immediately threw up. Owen passed out. Erin stood there and watched as Beth shrugged and then leapt right into the pool of worms. She stayed under for a few moments and then popped up. The Screaming Gophers cheered and jumped up and down. Owen woke up just in time to cheer, only to pass out a second time.

“And Beth sets the bar way up there!” Chris said. He turned to both Lindsay and Sadie with a devious smirk on his face. “Lindsay, Sadie, you two are up next. You two need to go the entire day with bad haircuts. If you take them off before the end of the day, you lose your challenge.” Lindsay and Sadie exchanged looks of complete and utter horror. Chris motioned for the two of them to follow him into the main lodge. Out of sheer curiosity, Erin decided to follow along. She wanted to see how he was pulling this off. She jogged up next to him while Sadie and Lindsay trudged along behind sluggishly.

“Please tell me it’s a mullet with frosted tips,” Erin said to Chris. Chris groaned and snapped his fingers.

“Why didn’t I think of the frosted tips? That would’ve been great,” Chris said.

“But they are getting mullets?” Erin asked.

“In the ugliest shade of brown I could find,” Chris answered with a smirk. Erin cackled almost maniacally. “Damn, Hoffman. I’m liking this evil side of you. It’s kinda hot, if you don’t mind me saying.” Erin immediately felt her face grow very, very hot. She knew she had to be just as red as, if not redder than, a fully ripened tomato.  Chris merely chuckled to himself and jogged ahead of the group of campers, most likely to ensure that the hairstyles for Lindsay and Sadie were ready. Erin entered the cabin and watched as Sadie and Lindsay were led to two stools in the middle of the main lodge. In either hand, Chris had an ugly brown wig in the style of mullet.

“Business in the front, party in the back,” Erin said with a snicker. Chris held up the wigs dramatically over Lindsay and Sadie, each of them looking up with complete terror in their eyes. Before Chris could plop the wigs on their heads, Owen ran up and snatched one of them. He then proceeded to stick it on his head and dance around like a ballerina. Owen ran into a wall and fell down. Chris took this chance to grab the wig again and then stick both wigs on the heads of Lindsay and Sadie. Chris turned to the rest of the campers and smirked. Owen groaned as he tried to stand himself up. Chris turned to Leshawna with a sinister grin.

“Leshawna. You’re up next.” Leshawna widened her eyes and let out a shudder.

“No way,” she said. “No way am I touching any nasty spider.” Chris merely chuckled and walked out the main lodge. Leshawna groaned and followed him. The rest of the campers exchanged glances with each other, all of them wondering how he was going to make Leshawna face her fear of spiders. When Erin left the cabin, she almost fell over laughing. There in front of them was Chef, dressed up as a giant purple spider. The costume wasn’t even that great; Erin could have sewed something better easily. Leshawna took one look at Chef coming towards her and ran away screaming. Heather facepalmed and shook her head.

“And no point for the Gophers,” Chris said as he watched Leshawna flee. He briefly checked his phone and smirked up at Heather. “And it seems that our special guest from Japan is ready to go. Ready to face a sumo wrestler, Heather?”

“No!” Heather screeched.

“So you wanna cost your team a point?” Chris asked. Heather sputtered incoherent words and then groaned.

“Let’s get this over with,” she grumbled. The campers and crew all turned around with Chris as he headed towards the amphitheater. The campers all piled into the wooden bleachers once they got there while Chris and Heather made their way onto a stage, where a genuine sumo wrestler stood, wearing that white sumo wrestler diaper thing that Erin couldn't remember the name of. She probably should have known given how much of a weeaboo she was in high school, but clearly those days were far behind her. Heather was shaking as she walked up onto the stage, staring at the sumo wrestler with wide eyes. Chris smirked and nodded once at the sumo. He yelled and charged at Heather. She screamed and ducked to the ground, tripping the sumo. He flew off the stage, barely missing Chris. Erin almost felt bad for the sumo wrestler as he bounced off into the distance.

"Alright, that's another point for the Gophers. Owen and Izzy, head out with Chef. Your flight awaits," Chris said. Owen and Izzy exchanged glances and gulped. "Bridgette, the camera crew will take you out deep into the woods. If you want to win your challenge, you have to stay there for six hours."

"Six hours?" Bridgette asked, her eyes wide. "I have to spend six hours alone in the woods?"

"Yep!" Chris said almost too cheerfully. He was having way, way, WAY too much fun giving these challenges. But then again, Chris was Chris. This wasn't uncharacteristic for him. "Rest of you, with me to the beach. Gwen's got a short date with a few tons of sand." Gwen blanched and shuddered. Erin was honestly worried for Gwen's challenge. There were so many things that could go wrong. She just hoped that Chris was sure of what he was doing.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just a quick thingy! I made Erin, Chris, and Sissi on the Sims 4, so if you want to play them, just find them through the hashtag ofnerdsandrealitytvstars. Enjoy the chapter!

Erin was actually fairly terrified to watch Gwen climb into the glass box buried in the sand with only the walkie-talkie. She would have hated to be in Gwen's shoes right now. Chris closed the lid of the box and picked up a nearby shovel. Erin could feel her tension rise with each shovel of sand on top of Gwen. "There's enough air for an hour," Trent said as he bent down next to the box. "You only need to do five minutes."

"As long as we decide to dig you up," Chris said. Erin dropped her jaw and stared at Chris in shock. He wasn't for real, was he?

"Not funny, Chris," Gwen snapped.

"Seriously," Erin muttered to herself.

"Sheesh, take a pill," Chris grumbled as he piled more sand onto the box.

"I'll be listening the whole time," Trent said, holding up the other walkie-talkie. "Just yell for me if you panic and I'll dig you right up."

"Goodbye cruel world," Gwen said as Trent closed the slim air hole shut. Chris shoveled another scoop of sand onto the box, this time right in front of Gwen's face.  The cameraman nodded and the red light on the camera shut off. Chris handed off the shovel to an intern, who continued to bury Gwen. Apparently Chris had more important things to do, like look over at DJ almost demonically.

"Your turn DJ," Chris said. "I hope you like giant, terrifying, man-eating snakes." DJ whimpered, almost looking like was going to start balling at any moment. It was almost humorous to watch. Erin wasn't entirely sure why she was enjoying watching most of these challenges. Like Leshawna and the spider was funny, the mullets were funny, DJ's reaction to snakes was funny. But Gwen being buried alive wasn't really all that funny since her life was at risk. "Your snakey friend awaits on the stage."

"Wait, we're already going back?" Erin asked. "Wouldn't it have been easier to do his while we were already there for Heather's sumo match?" Chris rolled his eyes and let out a huff.

"You're forgetting about a little thing called setup," Chris said. Erin shrugged, seeing his point.

"Fair enough," she said. Chris's cell phone went off and he picked it up almost immediately. He immediately smirked at Erin and chuckled in a way that made Erin immediately fear for her life. Or at least her sanity.

"Let's do it," Chris said into the receiver. He closed the phone and turned to Erin.

"Before we go to the stage, we have to make a little stop to the dodgeball arena," Chris said. "But instead of dodgeballs, it's now filled with approximately six hundred and ninety-two baby dolls." Erin dropped her jaw and widened her eyes. A small, high pitched squeak came out of her mouth at the thought of essentially being trapped in a glass box with that many baby dolls.

"How did you even get that many!?!?" Erin squeaked out.

"Connections," Chris replied, tucking his phone into his pocket. "And most of them are props from indie horror movies." That thought made Erin's blood run colder than the snake that DJ was going to have to face. "If you wanna win a point for you team, you have to spend two hours in there." Erin gulped and nodded. She had to do this. The Bass had no points right now. If they wanted any hope of winning this entire challenge, Erin needed to face two hours in a glass box with six hundred and ninety-two creepy indie horror baby dolls. An intern ran up to Erin, handed her a walkie-talkie, and then ran back into obscurity. They started on the trek to the dodgeball arena, which was only about a minute's walk from where they had buried Gwen. Erin could feel herself shaking as the saw the horde of baby dolls reside inside the glass arena. They covered the floor, they covered the bleachers, some were hanging down from the ceiling... it was making her pediophobia go absolutely crazy.

"Bruuuuh," Erin whimpered. They reached the door and Chris held it open, swinging his arm to the entrance in a grandiose gesture.

"Your palace of creepy dolls waits," he said. "I'll have the other talkie on me the entire time. You make it to two hours, you win a point for the Bass. You ready?"

"Do I have a choice?" Erin asked.

"Nope!" Chris replied almost too cheerfully. Erin sighed and bit her lip, bracing herself for the next two hours.

“I hate you so much,” Erin grumbled as she walked into the glass box of baby dolls, her arms wrapped around herself.

“No you don’t,” Chris said with a smirk. She turned around, shot a harsh glare at him, and then walked into the center of the baby doll infested room, where a clearing awaited her. She took a long deep breath and then sat down in the center. Duct-taped to one of the walls was a large timer, counting down from two hours. Chris shut the door and held up the walkie-talkie. “Your two hours starts now!” The timer beeped loudly, echoing through the glass arena, and started counting down. “Erin, the range of this walkie should cover the entire island. If you decide to wimp out, just give me a holler.”

“What if I just want a conversation buddy?” Erin asked. She could see him laughing outside of the glass walls. He finally picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the button on the side.

“You’ve got six hundred and ninety-two baby dolls to chat with. Some of them even have pull strings with catch phrases,” Chris said, his voice slightly muffled by the walkie-talkie static. “Good luck, brah. I don’t envy you. Those things really are creepy.”

“Bitch,” Erin muttered to herself.

“Brah, you realize you’re still holding down the button, right?” Chris asked. Erin froze, let go of the button, and held a thumbs up to Chris. “There ya go. Later Hoffman.” The static ceased and the walkie-talkie beeped, signaling that she was no longer connected to Chris. The rest of the cast walk away with Chris, leaving her alone in a giant glass arena with nothing but a timer, a camera in the corner of the room, and six hundred and ninety-two baby dolls.

Erin took a deep breath and studied the dolls that surrounded her. Some of them weren’t all that creepy. They were your typical, cute cabbage patch kids that Erin’s young cousin probably played with. Big plush faces, bright smiles, bright clothes… they really weren’t all that terrible.

Then there were the indie horror baby dolls.

One of them had grey skin and no jaw. Another had a black mouth and red bloody eye sockets. Another was half melted and resembled a baby Gollum. Erin shuddered and hid her face in her arms. This was going to be absolutely terrible. How long had it been? She looked up at the timer. It hadn’t even been three minutes yet. She still had an hour and fifty-seven minutes to go.

Erin turned around behind her and noticed that she could still see Trent from where she sat. He was currently standing up and talking into his walkie-talkie, probably just talking to Gwen and trying to keep her calm. Erin heard static come from her walkie-talkie and picked it up. “Hey, brah, just thought you’d like to know that DJ got you guys your first point.” Erin smiled and did a tiny happy dance to herself. She froze and grimaced when she caught sight of a baby doll that resembled Frankenstein.

“Cool,” Erin said into the walkie-talkie. That was all. No additional commentary from Erin Hoffman. She looked back over by Trent and saw that a mime was slowly creeping up behind him. She widened her eyes when she remembered that Trent’s greatest fear was mimes. He turned around when the mime tapped him on the shoulder. He tossed the walkie-talkie away, screamed and immediately ran away. It was almost comical to watch as Trent was being chased by a mime into the woods and then back onto the beach. She looked up at the timer. Only about a minute and a half had passed. Those blinking red numbers that didn’t seem to move were her worst enemy right now. Well… second to the baby dolls, of course.

Again, the walkie-talkie static started and Chris’s voice came through. “Duncan got his point. It’s two to two now.”

“Thanks for the updates,” Erin said into her talkie.

“No prob,” Chris replied. The walkie-talkie beeped, signaling that he disconnected again. However, she saw him a few minutes later walking across the docks, clapping his hands slowly as the mime walked past him almost sadly. Trent must have won his challenge. That gave the Gophers three points to the Bass’s two. Chris then held out what appeared to be a handheld video game. Not any system that Erin recognized, of course.  Just as she noticed that, Geoff walked by, waving to Erin as he sat down on a nearby chair. Erin dropped her jaw when she saw a miniature cloud slowly drift close and close to Geoff, who was sitting there obliviously relaxing. She clicked the button on the side of the walkie-talkie and sputtered incoherent words into the receiver.

“How!?” Erin finally asked once she got her thoughts together. Over on the dock, she saw Chris start laughing. Finally the cloud started dropping a crap-ton of hail. Geoff shot out of the chair, probably screaming at the top of his lungs, and ran around. The storm cloud followed him the entire time. Both Chris and Trent walked up to where Geoff was sitting. Erin stepped around the horde of baby dolls at her feet to get a better look at what Chris was doing. He glanced over at her and winked. He then got a small roll of tape and taped the button on his walkie-talkie down. Probably so he could communicate and pelt Geoff with hail at the same time.

“You didn’t hear me before, brah, but I said that I have lots of connections,” he said.

“Can you make the cloud go lower and pelt him harder?” Trent asked.

“You are one sick dude,” Chris said. “But yeah.” He moved the joystick lower, moving the cloud so that it was now covering Geoff’s face.

“Aw that’s awesome!” Trent exclaimed.

“Wait, have you tried the Konami code?” Erin asked. Chris furrowed his brow and then turned to Erin looking very clearly confused.

“The what now?” he asked.

“The Konami code. It’s used almost everywhere,” Erin said. “You know, up up down down left right left right A B?”

“I don’t have an A and a B on this,” Chris said.

“Then just do the rest of it,” Erin said. “It should still work. I just wanna see if it does anything with the cloud controller.”  Chris simply shrugged and pressed the code on the arrow keypad on the controller. Suddenly there was a large bolt of lightning. Erin could hear Geoff’s shriek through the walkie-talkie. Chris doubled over laughing and turned to Erin, giving her a thumbs up.

“Thanks for the tip,” he said.

“Anything to distract myself,” Erin replied almost bitterly. She looked to the left, saw a baby doll with button eyes staring up at her and kicked the doll away, screaming the entire time.

“Hey, do you ever feel like you’ve forgotten something?” Trent asked. Come to think of it, Erin was having that feeling too; like she’d forgotten about something or another.

“Sometimes,” Chris said. “I usually ignore it and the feeling goes away.” Chris laughed and looked at both Erin and Trent. “Watch this. I’m gonna bury him in hail!” That triggered the epiphany moment. Bury. Gwen was still buried.

“Bury!?” Trent screamed. “Oh, crap! Gwen!” He ran off to where Gwen was buried and immediately grabbed one of the shovels. Erin just watched as Chris kept sitting, still making the cloud follow Geoff.

“Hey, uh, Chris?” Erin asked.

“Yeah?” he asked, not looking up from the controller.

“Shouldn’t you help Trent dig up Gwen?” she asked.

“He can handle it,” Chris replied.

“Yeah, but, uh, if Gwen dies that’s a lawsuit on your ass,” Erin pointed out. Chris froze, sighed, and turned off the handheld device.

“I almost hate that you have a valid point,” he grumbled. He stood up and trudged over to where Gwen was buried. He picked up a shovel almost lazily and started helping Trent dig up Gwen. A few moments later, Erin felt and heard a massive explosion. She let out a shriek and fell over on top of one of the Cabbage Patch kids.

“What the ever living hell was that!?” Erin practically screamed into her walkie-talkie.

“If I had to guess, I’d say Cody just blew himself up,” Chris answered. Erin dropped her jaw. That’s right; his fear was having to defuse a time bomb under pressure. “Don’t make that face; it was just a garbage bomb.”

“ _Just_ a garbage bomb?” Erin questioned. Trent finally made it down to where Gwen’s glass coffin was and he opened the top.

“Gwen! You did it!” he said. Erin watched as Gwen’s walkie-talkie flew from out of the sand and hit Trent in the center of the head. Though he didn’t seem to care at all.

“She’s alright!” Chris shouted. “She’s alright. That’s four points for the Gophers, two for the Bass.” He pulled out his phone and smirked. “This just in from Chef: Izzy and Owen successfully completed their flight around the island, bringing the score to six to two.”

“Oh damn…” Erin muttered to herself.

“You all go and get some chow,” she heard Chris say to Gwen and Trent. They helped Gwen out of the box and the two of them walked off, Gwen keeping her distance from Trent. Chris, on the other hand, headed back towards Erin and took a seat in that chair again. He took the tape off the walkie-talkie button and held it up to his face. “How’s it hanging?”

“Oh, you know, still got an hour and forty five minutes with baby dolls to deal with,” Erin replied. Something was slightly up with Chris. She could tell just by looking at him that something was on his mind. She didn’t want to ask, though. She definitely didn’t want to overstep her bounds. She already felt like her crushing on him was crossing that line; no need to cross it further.

“So I have to ask,” Chris finally said. “At the campfire last night when you were telling those con horror stories… did all of those actually happen?”

“Oh yeah,” Erin replied. “Like the groping and grinding at the raves isn’t uncommon to experience among cosplayers. Lots of drunk or high or drunk _and_ high people at one in the morning leads to some sketch shit.” Erin covered her mouth and winced. “Sorry.”

“The magic of editing,” Chris said. “Nah, you’re good though. I don’t intend on letting this convo make it into the final cut.” He took a deep breath and then looked right up at her. “So that includes the one story with the guy jerking off at you?”

“Uh huh,” Erin replied, frowning. “That’s the entire reason I can’t do my Sailor Scout cosplays anymore.”

“Like Sailor Moon?” Chris asked. “You were in a Sailor Moon cosplay?”

“I was specifically Sailor Jupiter, but yeah,” Erin said. She cringed at the memory of that particular event. “I never mentioned it last night, but this was two years ago. I was seventeen. The guy had to be in his late thirties, early forties.” Chris dropped his jaw and widened his eyes at that fact. It really was a cringy situation that she’d never wish upon anyone.

“I’m so glad I’m editing this out, brah.” he said.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because what the fuck!?” Erin almost recoiled at how unbelievably pissed off he sounded. Not to mention that he actually dropped an f-bomb for the first time that Erin could actually hear. “That’s just… It’s bullshit!”

“You’re telling me,” Erin said with a snort. “So many cosplayers deal with this at every con. Like, okay, in my case I don’t care if someone gets off on a picture of me in cosplay that’s online. I mean, I did a boudoir Korrasami photoshoot earlier this year with a good friend of mine. The shoot was pretty hot, tbh…” Erin coughed and fought the blush that was rising on her face. “But once you involve me directly without my consent, that’s when I start getting not okay with it. So like the dick pics that I get on Facebook or Snapchat…”

“That I can actually kind of relate to,” Chris admitted.

“But with boobs instead of dicks?” Erin asked.

“I’ve gotten both,” Chris said. “More boobs than dicks, but…”

“Yeah,” Erin said. “Like you can be thirsty, but don’t assume that I want to see your hairy two inch penis.” Chris let out a snort and shook his head. “You probably deal with it a lot more than me, though. I mean, you probably have sixty times more fans than me. If you had a YouTube, you’d get more subs than me in a single day.”

“Yeah, but you have so much more content than I would,” Chris said. “All my videos would probably be promos. You have some pretty good stuff on your channel.” Erin shrugged. He did have a point there. “So I have a confession.”

“Okay?” Erin asked.

“I may have spent the past few weeks binge watching your videos,” he said. Erin widened her eyes and dropped her jaw.

“No,” she said with a gasp. “For real? You actually watched my stuff?”

“Yep,” Chris said. “That QWOP hurdle quote… If I’d seen that before reading your application I never would have accepted you.” Erin almost fell back laughing at the memory of that quote. It’s what made her initially go viral. She had about 300,000 subscribers at the time of that video. It skyrocketed to about 1.8 million after. It was popular enough to where she had t-shirt in her merch shop with that quote on it.

“That fucking quote gets quoted at me so much now,” Erin said. “What else did you watch?”

“ _Five Nights at Freddie’s_ , _Badger Simulator, Dead Space, Hatoful Boyfriend, I Am Bread, Slender, Goat Simulator, Surgeon Simulator, Happy Wheels, Octodad, Flappy Bird…”_ Chris listed off. Erin felt her jaw drop even further when he kept listing videos of hers that he’d seen.

“Damn, boy! When you say you binge watched, you really did binge watch,” Erin said. “That’s a lot of content.” Chris let out a chuckled and shrugged.

“What can I say? You’re entertaining,” Chris said. “I’m glad we got you on the show.”

“Glad to be on the show,” Erin said. “You know, except for when you made us jump off a thousand foot cliff or trapped me in a room full of almost seven hundred creep ass baby dolls.” She looked up at the timer. Still an hour and twenty minutes to go. She’d only been in this room for forty minutes. She wasn’t sure she could take any longer, but she needed to get this point for the Killer Bass, otherwise she’d probably go home. Maybe if she kept Chris talking the time would pass faster. It seemed to work so far. “So, uh, I remember you telling me that one of your sisters lived with you, but the rest of your family doesn’t. Where are you from, exactly?”

“Newfoundland, originally,” Chris said. “It’s where my parents and Miriam live right now.”

“You’re a Newfoundlander?” Erin asked. “I wouldn’t have guessed. You don’t have the accent at all.”

“Contrary to popular belief, not all of us have a thick accent,” Chris said with a smirk. “But you should hear my uncles. Even I can barely understand a word they say. But while we’re on the subject of family, I couldn’t help but notice that your dad looks way older than your mom.” Erin let out an awkward laugh and cringed. Of course he noticed that…

“Yeah… so… uh… there’s a good eighteen years between my mom and my dad,” Erin said. Chris dropped his jaw at that fact.

“Eighteen years?” Chris asked. Erin bit her lower lip and nodded.

“Do you know what makes it worse?” Erin asked.

“It gets worse?” he asked. “How?”

“So my parents are both music teachers. My mom’s in the elementary level and my dad’s in junior high,” Erin said. “My mom actually did her student teaching _with_ my dad. That’s how they met. Three years later they got married.”

“Wow,” Chris said, running his hand through his hair. “So I know about your twin, but I think you’ve mentioned an older sister in the navy?”

“Yeah, Lory,” Erin said. “She’s ten years older than me. It’s kind of funny. We’re all in the arts except for her. Not that she’s not artistic. She did choir throughout all of school. She just decided that it wasn’t the career for her.”

“I get that,” Chris said. He looked down at his watch and smirked. “You have an hour and ten minutes left, brah. I’m going to have to leave you to your solitude with all these dolls.”

“Please don’t leave me,” Erin squeaked out. Chris chuckle and shrugged. He stood up and waved.

“I believe in you,” he said into the walkie-talkie. He turned around and walked away, leaving Erin alone with the horde of baby dolls. Erin sighed and wandered back into the center of the glass arena. She sat down in the middle, wrapping her arms around her legs and hiding her head on her knees. This was going to be a long, long hour and ten minutes.


	16. Phobia Factor Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I created a tumblr page for this fic. The url is erinysart.tumblr.com. Also, there's a link to a collaborative playlist for the fic that anyone can add to at any time. Enjoy the new chapter!

Five minutes left.

All she had was five more minutes in this arena from hell.

Just five minutes.

Erin was glad there was only about five minutes left. She wasn’t sure she could take the hundreds and hundreds of creepy doll eyes that seemed to peer into her very soul. The rest of her team seemed to know that Erin’s time was close to up. Right now they were all crowded around the dodgeball arena. She could see them cheering her on, but she couldn’t hear a single word that they were saying. The soundproofing in the court was too damn good. She could definitely see that they were mouthing things like “Go Erin!” and “You can do it!” Chris was standing near the door, holding the walkie talkie casually in his hand.

“You could always wimp out, you know,” Chris said into the talkie, a smirk gracing his face.

“I’ve last for an hour and fifty six minutes,” Erin said, looking up at the countdown. “I’m not backing down now! Bring it on creepy dolls! I’m totally having nightmares tonight, but bring it on!” Chris let out a chuckle and shrugged.

“Suit yourself,” Chris said. Three minutes and thirty eight, seven, six, five… She was so close to getting this point for the team. Erin started to hum one of the songs from the web series _RWBY_ to herself to try and calm herself down enough to power through these last few minutes.

“ _This will be the day we've waited for,”_ Erin sung to herself, “ _This will be the day we open up the door. I don't wanna hear your absolution; hope you're ready for a revolution…”_ She just had to take easy breaths as she powered through the last few minutes. If it had been playing a horror game with baby dolls in it, Erin would have been fine. She’s lived through playing horror games for hours at a time. But this was actual life.

“Two minutes and counting!” Chris shouted more to the cameras than to her. He probably didn’t realize he was still holding down the walkie-talkie button. Or he completely realized it and wanted to taunt her. Both options seemed pretty likely.  “Will Erin survive being enclosed a glass box of almost seven hundred baby dolls. Find out when we return to Total! Drama! Island!” Erin pursed her lips and pressed the button on the walkie-talkie

“Seriously? I’m suffering and you’re doing a bit for before a commercial break?” Erin asked. Chris widened his eyes in shock for a moment. He then looked down at the talkie, now realizing he left the button on. He smirked and held it up to his face

“I mean, viewers eat up cliffhangers,” Chris said with a dismissive shrug.

“That’s complete true,” Erin said. “But still! Have some sensitivity for the girl surrounded by creepy and possibly demon-possessed dolls. Like I already feel like I need an exorcism!”

“I’ll loan you some sage to burn if that makes you feel better,” Chris said.

“Can I get a crucifix and some holy water to go with it?” Erin asked. “Maybe some salt? A Devil’s trap? A 1967 Chevy Impala?”

“I mean, I could do the salt, but not anything else on that list,” Chris replied. He furrowed his brow in confusion and then asked, “Why the Impala?”

“Supernatural reference,” Erin said. “I actually don’t watch it all that much anymore. I need to get back into it…”

“One minute!” Chris shouted.

“Oh thank Jesus!” Erin breathed out. She saw her teammates outside, jumping and cheering. Well, except for Duncan. He wasn’t the type of person to jump around like a maniac in support of team members. Instead, he simply smirked and gave her a thumbs up. It was down to the mere seconds. Fifty-one, fifty, forty-nine, forty-eight, forty-seven… It was so close yet so far away. She took a deep breath and stood up, bouncing up and down and shifting the weight between her feet. “Come on time. Move faster so I get out of this box,” she muttered to herself. “I don’t want Annabelle or Chucky to murder me in my sleep.” She looked up at the timer. It was down to the last few seconds. She could see her teammate’s mouths moving with the seconds as Chris counted down through the walkie-talkie.

“Ten,” they counted. “Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!” Chris grabbed the door handle and opened up the glass door. Erin nearly tripped over at least six dolls as she sprinted out of that glass hellbox. She practically jumped out the door and fell to her knees in the sand.

“FREEDOM!” she shouted to the bright blue, doll free sky. Chris was laughing in front of her and shaking his head.

“Whelp, you survive and didn’t get murdered by any possessed baby dolls. So that’s one more point for the Killer Bass,” Chris said. “Gophers are at six points, Bass are at three. Will they recover? I doubt it.”

“Bruh,” Erin moaned, falling face first into the sand. “No way in hell did I just spend two hours with creepy dolls for nothing.” She heard Chris kneel down next to her and pat her shoulder.

“There, there,” Chris said. “It won’t have been for nothing. It would have been for the loss.” Erin sat up and shot Chris a harsh glare. She raised her hand, showing off her nice, long middle finger. “I don’t think I deserve that.”

“Yeah, you do,” Duncan snorted from behind. Chris looked over at the bad-boy briefly and shot him a long, harsh glare.

“Shush,” Erin said with a pout. “I’m mad and emotionally scarred.”

“Fair enough,” Chris replied. He stood up and held out his hand. Erin took it and rose to her feet. “Onto our next challenge. Before that, though, Sadie and Lindsay… you can now officially take off your wigs.” The two girls squealed and then ran towards the bathrooms. Chris laughed and shook his head. He looked over at one of the camera guys and motioned for him to follow them. The cameraman ran off, leaving the rest of the campers on the beach with Chris. “And someone get these dolls out of here. They’re starting to creep me out.”

“Okay, but you didn’t spend two hours locked up with them!” Erin shouted. “And I still want that salt and sage. I’m still feeling bad demon vibes.”  

“I’ll see what I can do about the holy water,” Chris joked back. He looked over at the dolls and then shuddered. “I might need to get in on the sage burning. I don’t wanna mess with evil spirits tonight, brah.”

“So do you interact with evil spirits regularly then?” Erin asked with a furrowed brow. Before Chris could answer that, both Sadie and Lindsay returned to the group, free of their ugly brown mullets.

“You’re just so pretty!!!” Lindsay squealed.

“So are you!!!” Sadie squealed back. Chris winced at the squealing and then turned to the cameras.

“That’s seven for the Gophers, four for the Bass,” Chris said. He turned to Tyler and smirked. “You’re up next dude. Will you face your fear, or are you too _chicken_?”

“Dude,” Erin muttered under her breath. She wasn’t sure whether that quip was genius or just plain terrible. So far it was like Chris was the king of dad jokes or something.

“Follow me,” Chris said with a sweep of his arm. The campers all followed Chris, Tyler attempting to look confident in spite of the promise of chickens before him. Erin shook her head at the boy. I mean, chickens was a pretty solid irrational fear, but given how he’d nearly broken her nose in a dodgeball tournament and how he generally had an ego without any skill to match… well, she found it hard to feel sorry for him. The campers finally reached their destination: a pen with a box inside that would probably contain chickens soon. Hopefully a small horde of them. “Alright gang,” Chris said as Tyler leaned on the fence. “We’re in the ninth inning. Tyler, for your challenge, you need to get into this pen for three minutes with these chickens.” Chris leaned down and pulled off the top of the box, revealing a cute mother hen and two adorable chicks. Tyler took a deep breath and stepped into the pen, staring at the chickens wide-eyed in fear the entire time.

“Hold up, he gets three minutes with three chickens and I had two hours with almost seven hundred dolls?” Erin asked. “What kind of logic is that?”

“My logic, dear Erin,” Chris replied with a smirk. Erin crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

“You can do it, Tyler!” Bridgette shouted.

“Yeah,” Duncan agreed. “Unless, of course, you’re chicken.” Duncan then imitated a chicken and made all sorts of clucking noises. Erin was seriously resisting the urge to laugh hysterically. When she looked back at the pen, the chickens were still sitting in the box while Tyler was rocking back and forth in fetal position.

“I’m not sure we’re getting anywhere on this one,” Chris said. Courtney sighed and walked up to Tyler.

“Tyler, this is the last challenge,” Courtney said. “Quit being such a girl!”

“Don’t use our gender as an insult!” Erin snapped. Courtney shot a glare at Erin and then rolled her eyes.

“You have to do this, or we’re going to lose!” she shouted.

“Actually,” Cody said, pulling out a calculator. “If you do the math, you can’t possibly win. The score’s seven to four.”

“Not necessarily,” Chris said with his trademark devious smirk. “We’ve got one more challenge set up.”

“Who?” Courtney asked. “It can’t be me.”

“But it has to be,” Erin said.

“But I didn’t-“ Courtney stammered.

“You didn’t have to,” Chris interrupted. “We’re always watching you and your reactions.” Erin furrowed her brow and thought back to the previous night. She widened her eyes when it hit her. Courtney revealed her fear the moment she scream and kicked away the green jelly that Beth presented her. Erin dropped her jaw at the realization. Courtney was afraid of jelly!? “Erin’s got it. I can tell.”

“I knew it!” Lindsay shouted. “Didn’t I tell you guys they were eavesdropping?”

“Oh who cares?” Courtney asked. “It’s not going to make a difference.”

“Let’s make things interesting then,” Chris said as he walked up to them. “I’ll give you triple points if you can complete it.” Courtney looked over at her teammates and sighed, hanging her head low.

“Fine,” Courtney moaned. Chris chuckled to himself and motioned for the campers to follow him. Erin followed him and the rest of the campers. In the distance, Erin could see a tall diving board with a wooden tub underneath. As they got closer, she could see Chef using an oar to stir around what looked to be a pool of green jelly.

“I knew it!” Erin shouted. Duncan looked at it and snorted.

“You’re afraid of jelly?” he asked.

“Shut up!” Courtney snapped. “Only the green kind. It’s like surgary, jiggly snot!”

“You can face your fear and dive straight into this pool of jelly, or let your team lose yet another challenge,” Chris said.

“Girl, you better do this,” Erin said. “I didn’t spend that long trapped with six hundred and ninety-two baby dolls just to lose.” Courtney looked up at the jelly and sighed. She trudged over to the ladder, completely hunched over the entire time.

“This is insane,” she said. “I could seriously die doing this.”

“Oh, that is just cruel,” Gwen said loudly with a smirk on her face. “It’s probably warm by now. Warm green jelly, snotty, bouncy… ugh!” Erin had to admit the description was already making her feel nauseous. She couldn’t imagine what Courtney was feeling right now.

“You’re not going to make me quit!” Courtney shouted from above.

“That’s it! Keep climbing!” Duncan shouted.

“She’s just trying to psych you out!” Bridgette added.

“Do the thing!” Erin screamed. Courtney finally reached the top of the diving board and stared down at the jelly. Erin could see Courtney shaking almost violently.

“Like you said, Courtney, it’s okay if you can’t do it!” Duncan shouted.

“It is!?” Bridgette snapped. “But we’ll lose!” Up above, Courtney started sobbing almost hysterically.

“I can’t do it!” she wailed. “I’m coming down.” Erin and the rest of the Killer Bass sighed and shook their heads. The Screaming Gophers, on the other hand, were jumping up and down and cheering.

“Then there you have it,” Chris said as Courtney climbed down the ladder. “The Gophers win invincibility this week… _again_. Bass, I’ll be seeing you at the campfire tonight. You know the drill. Make your votes in the confessional.” Chris then strolled away, leaving behind dejected Bass and actually screaming Gophers.

* * *

In the end, Erin decided to cast her vote for Courtney. Sure Tyler’s fear of chickens was kind of pathetic, but Courtney straight up cost them the challenge. Of course, Erin still hadn’t been able to get the image of those creepy baby dolls out of her head yet. Every time she thought she was done thinking about it, the image of their melted plastic bodies and bloody eye sockets kept reappearing. Right now she was sitting with the rest of the Bass at the firepit, each of them waiting to hear of their fate. Erin couldn’t imagine that she’d be voted off. She faced her challenge unlike Tyler, Bridgette, Courtney, Geoff, and Harold. She, Duncan, DJ, and Sadie were definitely safe tonight. “Bass,” Chris said as he walked up to his podium with the tray of marshmallows. “I mean, what can I say? You’re here again. One more of you is going home tonight. Whoever gets voted off has to leave the island and can never return. Ever. So let’s get started.”

Chris took one of the marshmallows and smirked at Erin. “Erin,” he said as he tossed it to her. He did the same with the next names he called. “Duncan, DJ, Sadie. You four are all safe. You completed your challenges. The rest of you didn’t. So… Geoff. Harold.” The two boys caught their marshmallows with big smiles on their faces. That left Bridgette, Tyler, and Courtney. “There are only two marshmallows left on this plate. The three of you did not complete your challenges today. One of you is going home tonight and can never return. _Ever_. The next name I’m gonna call… is… Bridgette.” Bridgette let out a sigh of relief and caught the marshmallow as Chris tossed it too her. Erin let out a smile. Bridgette definitely still deserved to be here. Anyone would have fled the forest if they saw Cody covered in garbage coming at them like a zombie. At least, that’s what Bridgette told her had happened.

Courtney and Tyler exchanged glances as they stared at the last marshmallow on the plate. Chris looked between the two in a dramatic manner and then said, “The final marshmallow of the night goes to…” he paused for a moment and then said, “Courtney!” Courtney jumped up and caught the marshmallow as Chris threw it to her. Tyler looked down and sighed.

“You’ll get that chicken next time, dude,” Duncan said. Tyler stood up and trudged across the campsite towards the Dock of Shame.

“Looks like a new _pecking order_ has been established here,” Chris said with a smirk.

“It’s not like he can cry _fowl_ ,” Duncan added.

“Time for Tyler to _fly the coop_ ,” Geoff added with a laugh.

“He won’t be _flying high_ tonight,” Bridgette said.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Courtney said.

“Seriously, too many bad chicken puns,” Erin added with a roll of her green eyes. She got another mental image of one of the creepy baby dolls and winced. She stood up, taking her sketchbook with her and left the firepit without another word. Maybe if she got some sketching done, she’d forget about those baby dolls for a little bit. Hopefully. Possibly. Maybe.

* * *

Chris normally met up with Erin after an elimination ceremony. It had become his standard nightly routine, even when there hadn’t been an elimination that day. But today he wanted to check up on her for more than just a typical, “hey, what’s up, cool art” reason. He definitely noticed some weirdness going on with her after the elimination ceremony. If something was up with her, he wanted know about it ASAP. He considered her to be a friend. Friends checked up on friends. Especially when said friend had previously spent two hours trapped in a glass box full of baby dolls. Granted, that was entirely his fault, but she got through it.

When Chris came upon Erin, she was sitting on the steps of her cabin with her sketchbook sitting at her side and her hands gripping her hair. Her head was buried between her legs and she was completely silent. That immediately told Chris something was wrong; normally she hummed something while she sketched. She was never silent. “Hey, brah,” he said almost softly as he took his standard place next to her. “You good?” Erin took a deep breath and looked up. Her green eyes looked bloodshot, as if she’d been crying recently. She tensed her jaw and nodded.

“Fine,” she said pointedly.

“You don’t look it,” Chris replied. Erin shook her head and shrugged.

“I mean, fine aside from riding out the last waves of a panic attack,” Erin said. Chris tensed his jaw and scooted a little bit closer to her. She had a panic attack? Now he really felt bad about sticking her with all those creepy baby dolls for two hours. So far hers was the only challenge he felt remotely bad about. “It’s really fine. I mean, I knew it was going to happen with this kind of challenge. I could have not done it, but I did and I’m honestly kind of glad now. Like, being around a single baby doll will be fine now that I’ve faced like seven hundred for two hours. Still won’t be able to watch _Annabelle,_ but, you know, it’s fine.”

“You sure?” Chris asked. “Because if it helps, I’m actually starting to feel guilty about what I did.”  Erin let out a small chuckle and took off her glasses to wipe her eyes.

“That actually does help some,” she said. “But for real, don’t feel bad. You’re the host; it’s your job to be extra as fuck. Makes for better television, you know? Like, I do ridiculous things for the internet. I totally get it. My overactive amygdala, on the other hand… But that’s why I’m medicated.”

“You did good today, though,” Chris said. “For real.” Erin let out a small smile and finally looked at him.

“Thanks,” Erin said. “I’m honestly proud of myself for making it that long.”

“I mean, I don’t think I could have done it,” he replied.

“For real?” Chris nodded and Erin smirked.

“Sweet,” Erin said. “I feel like I accomplished something now.” Erin paused and then smirked at Chris. “So… just out of sheer curiosity, what’s your biggest fear?” Chris let out a huff and shook his head. Of course she’d ask this kind of question.

“Irrational or real?” he asked.

“Yes,” Erin said as she put her glasses back on.

“Irrational… I mean, anything happening to my hair,” Chris replied. Erin let out a laugh and rolled her eyes. “Shocking, right?”

“I mean, you worship your hair, so…” Chris rolled his eyes and thought about his actual biggest fear. Of course, he figured that out in about two seconds. Yet part of his biggest fear honestly surprised him when he thought about it. He wasn’t going to tell that to Erin, though.

“I guess my biggest real fear is anything happening to my family,” he said. “I worry about Sissi every day she rides her bike to school. Like, what if she falls off and gets hurt? What if she gets hit by car? What if she gets abducted? She insists that she’s fine, but she’s thirteen. I worry. And then Miriam is kind of like Duncan. She lives for rebellion. What if she gets in trouble one day? And then my mom, well, everyone worries about their mom.” What Chris wasn’t going to tell Erin was the fact that he realized that fear included her. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but now she fell in with one of his biggest real fears. What if something happened to her at a convention after the show? What if her biggest real fear happened to her? Chris honestly wasn’t sure if he could take it if anything ever happened to Erin.

Then it hit him. He cared about Erin. He cared about Erin more than he had any right to care about Erin. And it definitely wasn’t in a strictly friendly way. It was definitely in the way he’d first cared about- No. No. He wasn’t going to think about her. He didn’t feel like having flashbacks of _that_ failed relationship all those years ago. Oh God he was starting to fall for Erin Hoffman…

A hand on his shoulder brought him out of his train of thoughts. “Sorry ‘bout that, brah,” Chris said. “I just…”

“I get it,” Erin said. “If anything ever happened to Lory while she’s deployed or Andrea up at school…”

“Yeah,” Chris replied. He just had to calmly play this off. He was definitely worrying about his family right now. He wasn’t at all worrying about the fact that he just figured out he was into a barely-legal contestant on his reality show. That wasn’t the cause of the rising fear inside him at all. Totally. “You think you can handle the next challenge?”

“As long as you’re not making us eat poisonous puffer fish or something, totally,” Erin replied with smile.  “I should probably try to sleep. I doubt I’m getting much of it tonight.”

“Same,” Chris muttered. Erin furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the side in confusion. He’d learned that it was one of her cuter quirks- nope. Nope. Stop that. Oh yeah, he was in no way, shape, or form sleeping well tonight.

“Are you good?” she asked.

“Fine,” he answered. “Just challenge planning stuff. My lips are required to be sealed on that matter.”

“Fair,” Erin replied. She stood up and picked up her sketchbook. “Night, Chris.”

“Night, Erin,” he replied. She gave him a tiny salute and walked inside of her cabin, the door creaking shut behind her.  Chris let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through his hair. This definitely complicated things. How was he supposed to be the impartial host now? “Just act like normal,” he muttered to himself. That’s all he needed to do. Act normal. Make zero changes to his personality. Yeah, that could work. That had to work. “Damn it…” He rose to his feet and started to walk back to his luxurious, air-conditioned cabin. Erin remained heavily in this thoughts the entire walk back. He was fairly thankful that the next challenge took the campers off Wawanakwa. It would give him time away from Erin; time to figure out what to do with himself.  


	17. Up the Creek

Erin honestly had no idea what to expect when Chef told the campers to report to the beach that morning. It probably had something to do with whatever the next challenge was. As long as it wasn't nearly as insane as the phobia challenge, Erin was fairly certain that she would do well today. Maybe they were doing some stereotypical campy thing like a three legged race or something to do with papier-mâché. She highly doubted it, given how ridiculous and extra Chris typically was. She stopped walking for a moment and stared blankly ahead of her as she thought about the attractive host. Was it weird that she was really into how all-out he got? Maybe? She wasn't entire sure. It wasn't as if she could ask anyone about that besides Duncan and maybe Bridgette.

Oh, Bridgette... Erin was cringing from the moment Bridgette brought out that macaroni picture frame that Geoff had slipped under her pillow. Of all the cringy, awkward gifts to give, he had to do _that_. Geoff really needed some lessons on how to actually flirt with a girl in a way that made said girl want to date him. Erin probably had dated more girls than Geoff. Maybe she could low-key suggest some tips in passing.

Erin found herself at the cliff near the beach that Chef directed them to. Chris was already standing there, waiting for the contestants. As per usual, Erin was the first to show up. She really needed to just be late one of these days just for the heck of it. "Sup, brah?" he asked. Strangely, it sounded a little forced today. It immediately made Erin suspicious. What was he planning?

"So on a scale of one to seven hundred baby dolls, how ridiculous is our challenge today?" Erin asked. Chris tapped his chin for a second as he thought about it.

"I'd say a solid 4 or 5," Chris replied. "Not as crazy as I usually go for today."

"Weird," Erin said. "A good weird though. I will never complain about tame."

"Except for right now, when you're definitely pointing the tameness out," Chris said. "Guess I'll have to make this more interesting; and _you_ don't even know what the challenge is yet."

"Damn it..." Erin muttered, snapping her fingers. "You're totally evil."

"Um... yeah, brah," Chris said with a smirk. "It's nothing new."

"I mean, you're right," Erin replied jokingly. Slowly more and more campers started showing up. Within about five minutes the Killer Bass and the Screaming Gophers were all standing with their teammates. It was clear that the Gophers were the majority right now.

"Alright then," Chris started staying. "Bass, Gophers, today's challenge is a true summer-camp experience. A canoe trip." It was only now, after Chris was gesturing to the eight canoes on the shore, that Erin even realized there were canoes there in the first place. "You'll be paddling your canoes across the lake to..." Chris paused and deepened his voice into what he probably thought was menacing and spooky,  "Boney Island!" He wiggled his fingers dramatically for a few seconds. After seeing absolutely no response from the group of teenagers, he cleared his throat and pointed to a map. "When you get there, you must portage your canoes to the other side of the island, which is about a two hour hike through treacherous, dense jungle."

"We've gotta pour what?" Geoff asked, scratching his head.

"Portage," Chris said, glaring at Geoff. A fly buzzed around Geoff's head and then literally flew through one ear and out the other. Erin just stared at the party boy and blinked. How was that even possible? "Dude, walk with your canoe."

"Oh," Geoff said quietly.

"When you arrive at the other end of the island, you'll build a rescue fire that will be judged by me," Chris continued. "The first team to paddle home and return their canoes to the beach is the winner of invincibility." He smirked and then shouted, "Move, campers, move!" Erin didn't wait to start running towards the canoes. Neither did any of the other campers. "Oh wait!" Chris shouted. Everyone paused and looked back at time. "One more thing I should mention... Legend has it, if you take anything off the island, you'll be cursed forever!" There was a thundering that could have only come from the speaker that was very obviously in sight next to a tree as Chris wiggled his fingers again in an attempt to look spooky.

"Yeah!" Owen shouted. "A cursed island! Woo!" Everyone stared wide-eyed in shock at Owen for being excited about possibly being cursed for life.

"Now," Chris said after a moment of silence, "Get in your canoes and let's have some fun."

"So in other words, we're definitely going to be suffering and there's going to be a lot of weird and possibly dangerous things or creatures on Boney Island?" Erin asked.

"What gives you that idea?" he asked.

"The fact that you said the word 'fun,'" Erin said. "It never means anything good for us."

"Fair enough," he said. "Now pick a paddle partner and grab a canoe. Gophers, one canoe will have a group of three." Erin turned around and watched as Cody attempted to make a move on Gwen. She nearly broke his arm, but sighed and seemed to accept him as her partner anyone. Duncan came up behind her and draped his arm around her shoulder.

"Erin," he said with a smirk. "You, me, canoe?"

"Sure," Erin replied as she pushed her glasses back up her nose. She looked over at the Gopher's side. Izzy was trying to push her canoe and ended up flipping right into and (somehow) into her life-vest.

"Just follow my technique!" Izzy said. "I'm 1/87th Cherokee, you know. Which means, like, the tribe could totally, like, claim me at any time!"

"Let's hope it's today," Leshawna grumbled as she lifted the back of the canoe and started pushing it to the water. Erin turned to Duncan and pointed out their canoe. She walked up to it and took out the life-vest. As she began to fasten the buckles, she heard some of the conversation going on between DJ and Geoff.

"Do canoes flip over a lot?" DJ asked.

"No," Geoff said. "You're thinking kayaks. Unless we hit some rough water."

"Water can get rough?" DJ asked as his face visibly paled.

"Oh yeah," Geoff said. "Sometimes it can get totally radical out there."

"Only if it's really windy!" Erin called out. She knew that from the many times she'd visited her aunt and uncle at their lake house in Wisconsin. "Lakes are usually pretty tame. You'll be good DJ." Suddenly she heard a loud 'woo-hoo!' that only could have come from Owen. He ran across the beach carrying Heather and then slammed her into their canoe. It took everything Erin had to not laugh hysterically at Heather's luck. Karma definitely was a bitch to bitch queens.

"You want me to push?" Duncan asked.

"Considering my upper body strength leaves much to be desired, please?" Erin replied.

"No problem," Duncan said as he cracked his knuckles. Erin made an attempt to hop into the canoe. However, almost immediately her foot caught on the side of it and she faceplanted right into the vessel. "You alright?" Duncan asked.

"I'm good!" Erin replied, giving him a thumbs up.

"Damn it, Hoffman!" she heard Chris shout from afar.

"I'm not coordinated, okay!" Erin shouted back. Duncan rolled his eyes and then dragged their canoe into the water. This wasn't the first time Erin had been canoeing, so she felt pretty decent about how this challenge would go for the Bass. The canoe hit the water and Duncan jumped right it, not even missing a beat.

"See, _that's_ how you do it," Duncan said with a smirk as he fastened his life vest on. Erin rolled her eyes and picked up her own life vest.

"If this canoe's a-rockin', don't come a-knockin'!" Owen shouted as he bounced up and down in the canoe. Heather growled, lifted her paddle, and smacked Owen upside the head. "Ow! That smarts!" Duncan and Erin exchanged quasi-horrified looks with each other, shrugged, and then started paddling to the invisible starting line of the race. Chris walked down onto the beach with a gun in his hand. It was probably filled with blanks so he could shoot into the air like they did for those Kentucky horse races.

"On your marks," Chris shouted. "Get set... paddle!" Chris shot the gun and then a second later a giant eagle fell out of the sky, dead.

"Holy shit!" Erin shouted.

"That's gonna provoke some angry emails..." Chris said with a grimace. Erin sputtered for a moment, shook her head, and started paddling. Erin and Duncan didn't do a whole lot of talking as they paddled their canoe; both of them seemed to have the challenge more on their minds than anything. In fact, Erin was honestly surprised she wasn't aimlessly thinking about Chris-

Oh wait... whoops.

She really needed to stop that. It wasn't as if anything would ever come out of that crush.

"I'm guessing he's on your mind again?" Duncan asked. Erin looked up and saw him smirking at her as he paddled. It was obvious who the 'he' was in this conversation, but with camera crews around neither of them were going to risk saying Chris's name.

"Yep," Erin replied. "Please hit me over the head with that oar."

"Sorry, Rin," Duncan said, "But I need you conscious for this challenge."

"Damn it, you're so right," Erin replied. "Honestly, the sooner this crush drops the better."

"Same..." Duncan muttered. Erin dropped her jaw and stared wide-eyed at Duncan. "Shit, I meant for you. Not for me, _definitely_ not for me."

"You _like_ someone!" she teased with a suggestive wiggle of the eyebrows. "Who is it? Tell me! Tell me!" Duncan groaned and let out a huff.

"...ney," he mumbled.

"Who?" Erin asked.

"Courtney, okay?" Duncan snapped. "Don't ask me why and don't you dare say anything!"

"I promise, my lips are sealed," Erin said, making a zipping motion with her hand. "You've already promised not to tell anyone who I like. I wouldn't be a decent human if I didn't extend the same courtesy to you."

"Thanks," Duncan said.

"No problem," Erin replied. Suddenly she noticed that it was a lot foggier now than it was when they left Camp Wawanakwa. “Um… guys? Creepy fog? Anyone else getting weird vibes?” Then the island itself finally came into view. It was full of jagged rocks and arrow-sharp tree and… was that a skull in the cliff face? What the hell was this Neverlandish skull rock bullshit? Were Peter Pan and Captain Hook going to be flying out soon? They paddled harder and finally made it to the shoreline.

“Okay, did you see that skull?” Izzy asked as she jumped out of her canoe. “That’s so cool! It’s like this place is haunted or something!”

“Well it _is_ called Boney Island,” Erin said as she got out of her canoe. “That pretty much implies… well… bones. There are probably lots of dead bodies around here. Might be animals. Might be humans. Who knows?”

“Might be victims of the psycho killer with the hook,” Duncan joked back. Erin rolled her eyes as the two of them lifted their canoe over their heads. “Now run, bitch!”

“Fuck you, too,” Erin replied with a laugh. The two of them started running into the creepy forest full of dark, pointy evergreens. Inside the woods, there were skulls speared onto large sharpened stakes. The leaves of the tree all seemed dead or dying. And Erin could definitely swear she saw eyes popping out and inspecting them… as if those glowing eyes were figuring out how to kill their next set of victims. “If Chris gets us killed, he’s _so_ dead.” Suddenly, out of the bushes, there appeared the weirdest fucking creatures Erin had ever seen in her entire life.

Were those… woolly beavers?

If she had her sketchbook and wasn’t terrified as all hell right now, she’d totally sketch them.

“Monster beavers!?” Cody shouted. Everyone immediately started screaming and ran off with their own teams. Luckily, it seemed like the woolly beavers were more inclined to chase after the Gophers than the Bass. That wasn’t gonna stop them from running, though. They still had a race to win.

“Holy shit!” Erin screamed. “Chris is SO dead for this!”

“He’s dead for a lot of things he’s made us do,” Duncan added. The Bass all slowed down more when they reached a fork in the path. Erin felt her chest burning from how much they just ran in such a short amount of time. She totally needed to go to the gym more when this show was over. Maybe she could find a workout buddy in one of her Toronto-based guildmates.

“Which way are we gonna go?” DJ asked.

“Left,” Courtney said, point in that direction. The top of the canoe hit her head as she pointed. “Definitely left.”

“I don’t know,” Geoff said hesitantly. “I think we should take the one on the right.”

“The right trail _is_ wider,” Bridgette pointed out. Geoff smiled over at Bridgette, but clearly the blonde surfer wasn’t having any of it. “What are you smiling at?” Geoff winced and turned around. Bridgette sighed and walked towards that right path. Erin and Duncan looked at each other, shrugged, and followed the rest of their team as they went down the path to the right. Hopefully they made the right choice.

* * *

So far, the Killer Bass hike through those woods was going pretty well. Erin felt a lot better about the path they picked now. No issues yet whatsoever. More importantly, no more crazy as fuck woolly beavers were chasing them. Sure Erin’s arms were burning like hell from holding up that canoe for so long, but all-and-all things were looking up for the Killer Bass.

Then the tragedy happened.

Geoff fell to the ground and screamed, “Ah! My leg! I’m down! I’m down!” He held his leg in the air and rolled onto his back. “It’s so unfair! Why did this have to happen now? Why? WHY!?”

“Geoff!” Bridgette shouted. Every one of the Bass dropped their canoes and ran up to Geoff, who was clutching his injured leg.  

“You’ve gotta go on without me,” Geoff said, taking Bridgette’s wrist in his hand. He let out a gut-wrenching groan as the terrible pain consumed him. Courtney merely shrugged and started to walk away. DJ, however, had other ideas.

“We’re not leaving any man behind,” he said as he grabbed Courtney by the arm. “Not on my watch. I got our canoe. Can Geoff ride on top of one of yours?”

“We got him,” Duncan said. Erin looked over at Duncan with wide eyes. She wasn’t sure she could physically do that. Hopefully, though, Duncan’s strength would be enough to carry both the canoe and Geoff. DJ loaded Geoff on top of Duncan and Erin’s canoe. The two of them hoisted it and Geoff above their heads. Erin could already feel her arms burning from the strain, but she knew she had to do this for both Geoff and the rest of the Killer Bass.

It didn’t take that long for them to get to the beach; the shore had already been somewhat in sight through the thick forest when Geoff had gotten so severely injured. Erin’s heart dropped though once they reached the shoreline. The Screaming Gophers were already there, getting their fire set up.

“Shit,” Erin muttered as Heather waved slyly to them. “How are we going to do this?”

“Relax,” Duncan said, he pulled out a lighter and smirked. “I got this covered.”

“Is that even allowed?” Courtney asked.

“Chris never said we couldn’t,” Duncan pointed out. “Get some tinder. We’re making us a rescue fire.” Courtney and the rest of the Bass smirked at each other as they ran into the forest to get some firewood. Erin ran into the woods and grabbed a few sticks, then ran back to the beach. She looked up and saw a bright red helicopter hovering over the beach. It was probably Chris. No… no wait… it was _definitely_ Chris. Only he would be extra enough to fly a helicopter over them forebodingly.  Courtney and Erin both threw their sticks on the sand as Duncan started up his lighter. He held it to the scraps of wood and grinned when the flames caught.

“Yes!” Erin shouted with a jump into the air. Courtney bent down and started blowing on the flames, trying to get them to go higher.

“How did they do that so quickly?” Heather demanded. Duncan just held up his lighter and smirked.

“And the producers haven’t stopped us yet, so…” Erin added with a shrug. Heather growled and stomped away, going back to her own bonfire. Erin turned around and watched as Geoff started to drag himself across the sand, carrying a few twigs in his hand.

“Bridgette, you have first aid training right? Don’t you think you should check him out?” DJ asked. “He might have gangrene.”

“Or jungle rot,” Geoff said.

“Or _athlete’s foot!_ ” DJ shouted. Bridgette merely sighed and walked over towards Geoff to inspect his leg. Courtney tossed her own twigs into the bonfire, the crossed her arms and frowned.

“I don’t think this is going to be big enough,” she said. Erin looked over at the Screaming Gopher’s fire. Truth be told, it seemed like both were about the same size right now. Chris would ultimately decide which one was better in the end.

“You heard the woman,” DJ said. “We need more wood, guys.”

“On it, Captain!” Erin shouted as she ran towards the woods to get more… wood. Well, that’s why they were called woods, right? They had lots of wood? “Come on, let’s go!” Suddenly, Erin saw Harold sprint past her with the oars of the canoes. She widened her eyes and spun around. If that scrawny little ginger even thought about-

He did though. He threw the fucking oars into the fire.

“Harold!” Erin screamed. “You _moron_!”

“How are we supposed to get home now!?” Bridgette snapped. Harold grimaced and looked around, finally getting the idea of how badly he just screwed over the team. Then there was a massive explosion from the Screaming Gopher’s side of the beach. The force of it almost knocked Erin onto the ground.

“So we probably lost the bonfire part of this challenge,” Erin said.

“We have our fire building winners!” she heard Chris shout from above. “Point for the Gophers!”

“Where did you learn to do that?” Heather asked, blankly staring at Izzy. Of course it was Izzy. Why _wouldn’t_ the explosion be the fault of Izzy?

“Oh, you know, I spent a summer training with the Reserves,” Izzy said. “Yeah, I got into some trouble there and, like, blew up the kitchen by accident, which is why the RCMP is, like, still all over my butt.” She giggled and then added, “I am so totally AWOL.”

“Wait, that was you?” Erin asked. She remembered hearing a story from Lory about that incident. It wasn’t even her branch, but apparently word got around to the navy about it. That was Izzy!? Maybe some of her far-fetched tales weren’t as far-fetched as Erin thought…

Of course, Izzy wasn’t her problem right now. The biggest problem for the Killer Bass was figuring out how the hell to get back to Wawanakwa. “What are we gonna do without paddles?” Bridgette asked.

“You guys could get someone to swim behind the boats and push them,” Izzy said as she paddled by with Leshawna. Erin arched an eyebrow at this. Didn’t she realize they were on different teams? “I did that once for this huge, like, sixty foot yacht. The whole crew had to flutter-kick for, like, eight days to get to shore, and, like, four of us got eaten by sharks.” Izzy giggled and then added, “I didn’t. Not me. But it was really insane. Okay later!” Leshawna paddled aggressively, knocking Izzy back into the boat and the Screaming Gophers paddled away.

“That might work,” Geoff said. Bridgette nodded and smiled. The Killer Bass all seemed to understand that Izzy’s idea was probably the only thing that would get them back to Wawanakwa.

“We need someone big enough to push all the canoes back,” Bridgette said. Almost immediately, all eyes went to DJ. “DJ, you’re the only one who’s strong enough.” DJ froze and let his jaw drop to the floor.

“You can’t ask him to do that!” Geoff shouted. “The dude can’t swim!”

“Geoff, I know you’re friends, but DJ’s the only chance we’ve got,” Bridgette said.

“I mean, he _is_ the strongest one out of all of us,” Erin pointed out.

“Plus those skinny arms aren’t going to cut it,” Courtney added, holding up Harold’s pathetic little chicken arms.

“I’ll do it!” Geoff said. Bridgette gasped and shook her head.

“You can’t swim with that kind of injury,” she said, pointing to his leg. “You’re horribly disfigured!” DJ took a deep breath and then put his hand on Bridgette’s shoulder.

“I can do this,” DJ said. “I have to.” Erin smiled and patted DJ’s shoulder. So brave; so inspiring.

“That is one brave man,” Geoff said, limping up to DJ. “Come on guys, let’s do this!” Erin and Duncan immediately ran to their canoe and stacked it on top of the others. They had a four-canoe-high pile that the Killer Bass all began to balance almost precariously on. Erin climbed towards the top, given that she was one of the lighter girls on the Killer Bass. They all put on their own life-jackets before tossing DJ his. The big guy caught it and quickly put it on. He took a deep breath, waded into the water, and grabbed the end of the bottom canoe.

“Ready?” Erin called out.

“Ready!” DJ shouted back.

“Then let’s kick so Gopher booty!” Erin shouted again. The Killer Bass all cheered and DJ started to push the canoes, moving his feet as fast as he possibly could. And damn was he fast! “Hell yeah, DJ!” It didn’t take long for them to pass the Screaming Gophers, all of whom started to send glares in Izzy’s direction. If the Bass won tonight, Erin wouldn’t be too surprised to see Izzy go home. Erin turned around and watched as the shoreline grew closer and closer. She couldn’t help the bright smile that grew on her face. They were gonna win this! They were actually gonna win this challenge! Of course, that smile immediately turned to horror when she realized that their canoe tower had crashed against a rock, sending the four canoes and the entirety of the Killer Bass flying. They all fell into a pile on the other side the dock. No one in that team was alright. They were all pretty much in pain.

“The Bass are the winners!” Chris shouted.

“Party hard!” Erin shouted. The rest of the Killer Bass cheered with her. As they tried to get themselves untangled from their completely trashed canoes, the Screaming Gophers finally made their way to shore. She heard some shouting as she slid her leg out from under one of the canoe pieces. By the time she finally got out, Leshawna was chasing Izzy around with one of their paddles. “So she’s totally going home,” she off-handedly said to no one in particular.

“Probably.” She turned around and saw Chris standing there, leaning against one of the rocks. Suddenly he let out a groan and shook his head. “Damn it, Hoffman.”

“What?”

“Check your skull,” he said. Erin furrowed her brow in confusion and did as he said. Sure enough, she definitely had a cut on her forehead.

“Damn it!” she shouted. “And I thought I got out of this injury free for once.” Chris shook his head and immediately procured a band-aid from his shirt pocket. Erin tilted her head in confusion at this. Since when had he been carrying band-aids around?

“The fact that I have this ready for you should say something,” he said as he handed it to her. Erin immediately felt her face go hot as she took the band-aid from him. She ripped it open quickly and placed it on her forehead, hopefully where it was actually bleeding.

“I’m not trying to repeatedly hurt myself,” Erin said. “It just happens.”

“I know,” Chris replied with a smirk. “Your clumsiness is what makes your adorable.” If Erin wasn’t alright redder than a sunburned tomato, she definitely was now. Stupid crush… “Now if you excuse me, I have an elimination to set up.”

“Good luck with that,” Erin said. Chris waved and then walked off towards the firepit. She let out a breath she had no idea she was holding and groaned. God he probably thought she was a moron. Behind her, she heard Duncan start snickering.

“You definitely have it bad,” he said.

“I know,” Erin moaned. She slumped forward and trudged back towards her cabin, fully intending on hiding under her covers for the rest of all eternity. Or at least until her crush on Chris went away. Whichever happened first.

* * *

Erin stared up at the sky with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. Was that… was that an RCMP helicopter? What in the hell was an RCMP helicopter doing at Camp Wawanakwa. She looked over to her left and saw Chris walking in her direction. Maybe that’d give her an answer soon. Though as he got closer, his face clearly showed that he also wasn’t entire sure of the RCMP thing. “Um… so RCMP?” Erin asked as he took his standard post-elimination place next to her on the steps of her cabin.

“Yeah,” he said. “They were here for Izzy. I guess she wasn’t a complete liar about half of the stuff she claimed. I knew she was a psycho, but… damn.”

“No kidding,” Erin muttered. “So did she actually get eliminated or was she just run off by the RCMP?”

“I mean, everyone on her team voted for her, so… yeah. She was eliminated,” Chris said. “She just got run off by the RCMP before she could go down the Dock of Shame and get on the Boat of Losers. We’re not actually sure of where she is right now…”

“So she’s still probably on the island?” Erin asked.

“Probably,” Chris said. “But we have interns hunting her down. You know, so she doesn’t murder us all in our sleep.”

“That makes me feel safe…” Erin muttered. Chris let out a small chuckle and placed his hand on her shoulder. Erin bit her lower lip, trying to kill the butterflies that were starting up in her stomach. Damn fucking crush…

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone murder you in your sleep,” Chris said.

“Bitch you better not,” Erin replied. “If I die, I guarantee someone will sue or something. Actually, no, better yet, my corpse will rise from the earth and sue your ass.” Chris let out a bark of laughter and shook his head.

“I think the fact that you’d be a zombie would worry me more than your corpse suing me,” he said. Erin merely shrugged and giggled. Oh god, she was _giggling_ at him. How much more obvious could she get? “I probably should go talk with the lawyers. Make sure we don’t get in legal trouble for technically harboring an AWOL psycho…”

“Good idea,” Erin said. She rose to her feet and said, “Good night.” Chris got up as well, nodded, and then went on his way. She closed her eyes and shook her head. This was gonna be one tough rest-of-the-summer…


	18. Paintball Deer Hunter

_Erin sat alone on one of the wood logs at the fire pit. The moon was high in sky and the bonfire illuminated the night. The only other person there was Chris, who stood in front of her with an empty marshmallow tray. He shook his head almost pityingly at her. “Sorry, brah, but you’ve been voted off,” Chris said with a devilish smirk. Erin dropped her jaw and gasp._

_“But I don’t get it!” Erin shouted. “I’m literally the only one on the team right now! I’m a team of one!” She looked around the campfire pit, completely alone save for her and Chris. “Who voted me off?”_

_“Oh… him,” Chris said almost casually, pointing into the forest. Out of the thick woods emerged a massive woolly beaver. It was standing on its hind legs, as if it were a human. It wore a pirate hat on its head and held a machete threateningly._

_“Your wife is going to cheat on you,” it said in a strangely high-pitched, demonic voice._

_“I don’t have a wife!” Erin screamed. Suddenly Chef emerged wearing a bright pink, shepherdess costume._

_“You do now, bitch,” he said. Erin dropped her jaw and watched as the woolly beaver stalked closer and closer. Suddenly every tree on that island turned into the creepy baby dolls she was trapped with during the phobia challenge. Chris was suddenly wearing clown makeup. Erin was hamburger. Special sauce was flying from her mouth as she screamed. A mime was crying softly in the corner as he cradled a young cow. The world turned to sepia. Then there were helicopter noises in the background. Erin was screaming and the helicopter sounds grew louder and louder and louder…_

And then Erin woke up and realized that the helicopter was actually real.

She sat up slowly with a furrowed brow and shook her head, as if trying to get rid of the remnants of that really weird dream. But right now she more cared about whom the fuck was flying a helicopter over the cabins this early in the morning. Probably Chris. It might have been Chef too, but it was probably Chris. She shuddered at the memory of that dream. Lord… she was never going to look at Chef the same way again. Sure, she’d seen him in that shepherdess costume before at the Awake-a-thon challenge, but it didn’t mean that seeing the massive, ex-Navy Chef in a pink frilly outfit like that wasn’t going to scar her for life.

“I really hate that guy,” Courtney mumbled as she climbed out of her bed.

“He’s not _that_ terrible,” Erin said. “But yeah, he’s kind of a dick.”

“Come on, Erin,” Bridgette said with a sleepy smirk. “Everyone knows he has a soft spot for you. You should have heard Heather the other night. She’s been vowing to take you down.”

“Heather wants to take everyone down except Lindsay and Beth,” Erin said as she bent down to get changed. She pulled out a pair of jeans and her N7 tank top. “And let’s face it, she’s gonna fuck them over too.”

“For real,” Sadie said with a laugh.

“I mean, I’m not gonna deny that Chris and I get along well,” Erin said. “But he’s definitely not going easy on me. Remember the almost 700 baby dolls during the phobia challenge?”

“That _was_ pretty messed up,” Bridgette agreed. “I thought being alone in the woods was bad, but that doesn’t even come close to being stuck in a glass box with creepy dolls for two hours.” Erin slipped on her tank top and shuddered at the memory of that challenge. She’d have absolutely no good memories of that challenge, save for the Konami code that apparently worked on Geoff’s personal cloud. Good times with unlocking lightning… “Anyone else grabbing a shower this morning?”

“Me,” Courtney said. “Hopefully Heather doesn’t take forever like she normally does.”

“She probably will,” Erin said as she slid her arms into the sleeves of her jacket. “That’s why I shower at night. As long as I’m able to pee this morning, I’m golden.”

* * *

“Fuck this bitch in the ass with a chainsaw!”

Erin was at the very end of the line of very disgruntled girls who desperately needed to relieve themselves as they waited for Heather’s stuck-up queen-bee ass to get out of the bathroom so they could pee. There wasn’t a single girl who wasn’t holding themselves like a five-year-old who needed to go potty.

“What’s the hold-up?” Bridgette asked.

“Heather needs her private time,” Lindsay explained, looking just as desperate as every other girl in line.

“How long’s Queenie gonna be in there?” Leshawna demanded. “I got urgent business.”

“We all got urgent business,” Erin mumbled under her breath.

“She could still be a while,” Beth said with a frown. Erin let out a very audible groan at the same time as Gwen.

“That’s it, I’m going lumberjack style,” Gwen said as she hobbled out of the line and towards the thick forest. Erin was so tempted to follow her and do the exact same thing. Before she could move, though, she heard the camp PA system begin to squeak to life.

“I hope you’re ready for the most challenging challenge yet!” Chris said over the speaker system. “Breakfast in three minutes at the campfire pit.” Erin groaned at the thought of what they’d be doing today. Hopefully it was disgusting or pain-inducing.

“Um, Heather?” Beth said as she knocked on the door.

“Can one of you come in here and lotion my back?” Heather shouted through the closed door. “It’s peeling!” Erin shuddered and immediate ran off to go lumberjack style like Gwen was doing. It seemed most of the other girls had the same idea as they all headed towards different parts of the woods. Beth was the only one that remained and Erin definitely didn’t envy her. No one deserved to have to lotion up bitch-queen’s back. Of course Erin would have preferred to pee in an actually toilet instead of crouching down behind some bushes and praying that none of the hidden cameras would pick up on her own… uh… _bush_.

After she relieved herself in the forest, she made her way to the campfire pit. For once, she wasn’t the first person to get there. There were actually some more of the contestants there than usual… mostly female. It was probably all Heather’s fault since she was hogging the entire girls’ bathroom. Chris stood in his usual spot, leaning against the rusted oil drum. “You’re later than normal, Hoffman,” Chris said with a devilish smirk. Erin merely shrugged and sat down.

“Blame Heather,” was all she said in reply. Slowly, more of the guys began to show up. The last two contestants to show up were (unsurprisingly) Heather and Beth. Erin felt bad for Beth. It definitely couldn’t have been easy to deal with bitch queen all day. However, Beth _did_ make the decision to enter that alliance with Lindsay and Heather, so in all fairness, Beth kind of got herself into that mess. It made Erin feel a little less bad for Beth from that particular standpoint. Chris looked over at the camera crew and motioned for them to start rolling as he walked up to the unlit fire pit.

“Are you ready for today’s extreme impact challenge!?” Chris shouted.

“Probably not!” Erin shouted back with as much enthusiasm as Chris was putting out. Chris snickered and shook his head.

“Psh, don’t say that!” Owen said. “We are ready!!” Chris smirked and bent down, grabbing one of many cans of what appeared to be beans based on the label. He chucked one clear across the fire pit and into the hands of Trent, who caught it just before it hit Gwen square in the face.

“This,” Chris said as he tossed out another can of beans, “is breakfast.”

“No,” Heather replied with her usual snotty attitude. “Breakfast is crepes, croissants, even Chef’s crappy burnt eggs.”

“You’ve clearly never been to the UK,” Erin said as Chris sent a can of beans flying her way. Erin attempted to catch it, but ended up bouncing it between her hands before the can finally flew behind her and rolled off the side of the cliff. She simply crossed her arms and tensed her jaw. She could very obviously tell that Chris was doing his best to not burst out into laughter as he finished handing out the breakfast beans. “That’s fine. I’m not a huge breakfast eater anyway.”

“You’re the reason we can’t have nice things,” Duncan said as he caught his can of beans.

“Beans, beans, they’re good for you heart,” Owen sang. “The more you eat, the more you-” Owen didn’t get to finish that song, though, because Chris hit him square in the head with the last can of beans. Erin nodded her head and gave Chris a thumbs up. That was a pretty sweet shot. Chris just looked at her and raised his eyebrows suggestively before turning his attention back to the group as a whole.

“Today’s challenge is about survival,” Chris said. He bent down and picked up what looked like a paintball gun. “We’re going hunting.”

“Now that’s more like it,” Duncan said with a bit too excited of a smile.

“Isn’t that a paintball gun?” Harold asked.

“Why yes, Harold. It is,” Chris replied. He then aimed the gun at Harold and shot him right in the chest.

“So we won’t be killing anything?” Bridgette asked.

“Negatory,” Chris said. Bridgette let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “This is the first ever paintball deer hunt. I’ll announce the teams once we get into the woods. So finish breaky, unless you’re Erin.”

“Listen, you should know by now that I’m really bad at two things; catching and dodging,” Erin retorted. Suddenly, a loud burp rang through the air. Over on the other side of the campfire pit sat Owen, surrounded by empty cans and covered in beans and bean juice. Apparently no one would be eating breakfast because fucking Owen had to be his usual gluttonous self…

“Got anymore?” Owen asked. Chris sighed and shook his head.

“Nevermind. Owen, get cleaned up. The rest of you, follow me to the woods,” Chris said. He held onto that green paintball gun that was in his hand as he headed off in the direction of the woods. Erin pretty much knew she wasn’t eating breakfast today at this point, so she bounced off of her log and began to follow the host. It didn’t take long for them to approach the site of their next challenge. There was a rack with three more green paintball guns and four red paintball guns in addition to the green paintball gun Chris was holding. In front of the rack was a large chest with who knows what inside. The campers all slowly surrounded Chris, standing amongst their own teams. “And now for the team breakdowns,” Chris said. “The Killer Bass hunters are Erin, Harold, Geoff, and Bridgette. Locked and loaded with Bass Blue paint.” One at a time, Chris tossed the green paintball guns at each of the four of them. Erin let out a squeak as she braced for her inevitably failure to catch the gun. To her complete surprise, she actually caught it. “Nice catch there, Hoffman.”

“I’ll take it,” Erin said. Chris let out a faint chuckle and turned to the Gophers.

“And using orange paint are the Gopher Hunters,” Chris said. “Leshawna, Beth, Owen, and Lindsay.”

“Waahoo!” Owen shouted. “This is awesome man!” Chris took out a camouflage hat and orange glasses and put them on.

“You also get these styling glasses and wicked camo caps,” he said. Erin smiled and definitely admired the view. Of the hat and glasses only, obviously… she definitely wasn’t checking Chris out for the millionth time. She totally wasn’t. “The rest of you are now deer.” He pulled out crappy homemade antlers and little red noses. “Here are you antlers, noses, and little white tails!” Chris turned around and showed off the deer tails, shaking his butt for extra emphasis. Erin abruptly looked away. _Don’t look at the booty, don’t look at the booty, don’t look at the booty_ , she repeated inside of her head. But when he had such a sweet a-

Nope. Not going there.

“Yeah, right,” Heather said with her arms crossed. “I’m _not_ wearing that.”

“There is no way I’m a deer,” Duncan growled. Chris merely smirked and shoved the antlers, nose, and glasses onto Duncan.

“Take them off and your team is toast,” Chris said as he shoved the tail onto Duncan’s waist. Owen let out a snicker and crept up to Duncan with a sinister smirk.

“What are you looking at?” Duncan demanded.

“Oh, nothing,” Owen replied. “ _Bambi_.” Erin cringed at the look of sheer embarrassment on Duncan’s face as Owen snapped the tail attached to him. If she could, she’d totally trade places with Duncan. But she doubted Chris would give up the chance to have an entire challenge with Duncan in a deer costume.

“You’d better be a good shot, tubby,” Duncan hissed.

“Don’t we want him to be a bad shot?” Erin asked. “You know, so we’re more likely to win the challenge?”

“You have a point,” Duncan said. He sighed and shot a harsh glare at Chris. “When does this get started?”

“Right about now,” Chris said. “Deer get a fifteen minute head start. Find your hiding places and get as far away from here as you can. Got it?” All of the deer contestants nodded, but then awkwardly shuffled around and looked at each other. “That means go. Now.” That got the deer moving. Courtney, DJ, Sadie, and Duncan all gave one last look at their teammates and then disappeared into the woods. “Hunters, just chill until I give you the go-ahead.” Chris pulled out his phone and worked on setting a timer for fifteen minutes. At least, that’s what Erin assumed he was doing.

“Yo, Erin!” Harold called out. “We gotta come up with a game plan!” Erin nodded and ran up to the small huddle comprising of herself, Harold, Geoff, and Bridgette.

“Alright, anyone here hunt before?” Erin asked. She was met with nothing but the sound of daytime crickets. “I’ll take that as a no…”

“Listen, I say we stay in a group,” Geoff said. “You know, more of a chance of hitting someone when we actually find them.”

“Splitting up would cover more ground though,” Harold argued.

“Yeah, but the woods suck,” Geoff said. “And Bridge is scared of being in the woods alone.”

“You three could go together,” Erin suggested. “I’m fine wandering around the woods on my own. That way we have me covering a lot of ground for stealthy stuff and you three have a balanced party for brute force tactics.”

“I like it,” Harold said. “You main a rogue, I can tell.”

“Actually my main is an affliction warlock but my secondary toon’s an assassin rogue,” Erin said. Bridgette and Geoff looked between the two of them, clearly confused by the World of Warcraft lingo being used by Harold and Erin. “Don’t worry about it, you two. It’s nerd talk.”

“So are we good?” Harold asked. Erin looked over at her teammates and nodded. Erin would go alone and the other three would travel in a pack. Harold put his hand into the middle of their tiny huddle. Erin put her hand on top of his, followed by Bridgette and Geoff. “Aaaaaand break!” They lifted their arms and then all slid their orange protective glasses onto their faces. Well, Geoff and Harold did. Erin managed to stab herself in the eye with the end tips of the goggle. She recoiled for a second, blinked the tears out of her eye, and then put them on properly (finally). Bridgette, on the other hand, was still staring at her paintball gun worriedly. Harold sighed and walked up to her. “Okay, you realize that this is all just pretend, right? And that it’s just paint? So say if you, like, hit Heather…”

“Wait,” Bridgette said, suddenly perking up. “ _Heather’s_ a deer?” She chuckled and immediately put her glasses on and readied her weapon. Nothing like the idea of shooting Heather repeatedly with paintballs to lift spirits.

“Campers,” Chris shouted. “I’m headed out to watch the camera feeds. I’ll let you guys know when to head into the woods. No cheating, ‘kay? I’ll see it.” Chris smirked at the eight campers standing there and then walked off towards the camp. She had no idea where his base of operations was, but she was better that that’s where all of the footage from the hidden and not hidden cameras was. She kind of wanted to see it eventually… But she doubted that would ever happen.

“Let’s do this, bitches,” Erin muttered under her breath.

“LANGUAGE!!” she suddenly heard Chris shout from far away.

“How did you even hear me!?” She shouted back.

“I didn’t! I just know you!” Chris replied. Erin let out a sigh and shook her head. That man… “Alright. Campers! Start your paintballs! Game on!” Erin looked at the other three Bass hunters, saluted, and then darted off into the woods. She had to be stealthier than an archer in Skyrim if she was gonna bag any pseudo-deer in this challenge.

* * *

Hours had passed.

Hours. Zero deer. None whatsoever.

Erin really hated her life right now.

She groaned as she leaned against the trunk of a tree and slid to the ground. She let out a huff and set her paintball gun next to her. She doubted she’d find anyone now, not to mention the challenge had to be nearly over. Plus it didn’t help that she definitely had no idea where she was. Perfect… Maybe splitting up from the others was a worse idea than she thought. “Chris, this challenge is absolute bullshit.”

“Well, damn, no need to be so harsh.” Erin snapped her head to the side and saw none other than Chris himself walking up to her.  He smirked and leaned against another tree. “Not my fault that you suck at hunting, brah.” Erin merely rolled her eyes and let out a huff.

“Yeah, well, I’m better at hunting in video games,” Erin said. “I’m usually that person who camps and snipes in battlegrounds.”

“I’ve noticed that in your videos,” Chris said. “I really thought you’d be better at this.” Erin shrugged and started to stand up. “You wandered pretty far, brah. You’re almost at the control tent.”

“For real?” she asked. Chris nodded.

“Challenge is almost over,” he said. “You’d better started heading back to camp. You better hope that the rest of the Bass didn’t suck as bad as you this challenge.”

“I’m praying to Talos,” Erin replied with a ghost of a laugh. “I guess see you in a few. Um… but first which way to camp? I have a shit sense of direction.” Chris let out a scoff and shook his head. He pointed towards his right.

“Just go straight and you’ll get there,” he said.

“Thanks,” Erin said with a smile. “See ya round. Hopefully my team won.”

“We’ll see,” Chris said. He winked at her and then walked off, probably to get back to his base of operations. Erin let out a sigh and then groaned, knowing that once again she probably did a terrible job at hiding her more than obvious crush on him. Erin started trekking in the direction that Chris pointed too, going completely straight so that she’d hopefully make it back to camp and not die in the woods. As she was walking, she heard the camp PA system turn on and Chris’s voice fill the air. “ _Attention human wildlife and hunters. Please report back to camp. It’s time to show your hides and tally up the scores.”_

Well it was definitely a good thing that Erin was already heading back. She walked for a good fifteen minutes before finally getting back to the firepit. Chris was already waiting there, but he wasn’t alone. Chef was also standing there and so was… was that Cody and the medic? As Erin got closer, she dropped her jaw at the realization that it was, in fact, Cody in a wheelchair and a full body cast. “Oh my God!” Erin shouted as she approached. She ran up to Chris and pointed at Cody. “What happened to him?”

“Oh, right,” Chris said. “Yeah… he kinda got mauled by a bear. But it’s fine. He’s stable… enough.” One by one, more campers began to show up at the campsite. So far it looked like the Bass were pretty much untouched by paint. Erin bit her lip to keep from laughing when Heather, Beth, and Leshawna all showed up absolutely coated in paint from not only the Bass, but from their own team too. She totally wanted to get the footage of that catfight from Chris at some point. Finally all but Duncan and Courtney showed up, though this didn’t seem to matter to Chris because he began his speech before anyone could point out that the two Bass were still missing. “Tsk, tsk, tsk…” he murmured as he started pacing back and forth in front of the very beat up Cody. “Stealing from Chef, eating chips in the woods, being mauled by bears. Do you know what I see here?”

“Confused teenagers?” Erin asked.

“Yes, but not only that,” Chris said. “I see a very undisciplined group. I see a mostly disgraceful mess. I see a massive waste of paint product which probably hurts Erin’s soul right now!” Erin shrugged. She had to admit, as an artist it _did_ hurt her soul a tiny bit. But she was mostly a digital artist so… not as much as it would hurt the souls of her more studio-art based friends. “And I have to say… that was awesome!!” He laughed and pointed at the Screaming Gophers. “When you guys opened fire on your own team… man… wicked TV guys!”

“Hey, where are Duncan and Courtney?” Harold asked. In that exact moment, Duncan and Courtney stumbled out of the woods and made their way towards the rest of the campers. Erin held her breath to avoid laughing hysterically at the scene before her. The two of them had apparently locked antlers and were now stuck together. It reminded her of the times she and Andrea would get their antlers stuck together whenever they would try to headbutt each other.

“Oh this is too much,” Gwen said with a smirk. Owen, who was covered in mud and bruises, laughed and shook his head.

“Duncan, you sly dog, you,” Owen said.

“The girl can’t keep her antlers off me,” Duncan said, smirking at Courtney and raising his eyebrows suggestively. Courtney let out a growl and then kicked him hard in the crotch. Duncan let out a grunt and a tear fell from his eye. “Can’t even bend over,” he whimpered.

“Easy, Courtney,” Chris said, resting his elbow on Cody’s head. “Our medical tent’s really only equipped for one at a time and Cody’s pretty messed up.” Geoff and Bridgette immediately ran over to the two and helped them separate their antlers. Duncan fell to the ground when he was free, immediately cupping his crotch with his hands. “Well, since three members of the Gophers are dripping in paint-” Lindsay turned around and pointed at her back, which was covered in blue paint, “Make that four members and some of them aren’t even deer… I think we have our winner!” Erin let out a cheer and jumped into the air anime-style. Even though she pretty much did nothing to contribute to this victory, she was still happy to have won. “You’re off to a hunting-camp shindig! Gophers, I’ll see you at the campfire ceremony. Again.”

Erin and the rest of the Bass headed off towards the campsite. She squealed and bounced up to her teammates. “Guys! Two in a row! Let’s make this a three-peat!”

“Yeah!” Harold shouted. “We’re gonna dominate the next challenges!” He paused and looked over at all the Bass. “Who do you think the Gophers are sending home tonight?”

“Heather’s hated by all of them,” Erin said, “But Cody got mauled by a bear and is in a full body cast. I can’t see how he’d be able to do challenges. I think it’s gonna be him.”

“Yeah,” Bridgette agreed. “He’s really messed up.”

“I wonder what this hunting-camp shindig thing is,” Geoff said. Erin merely shrugged and kept walking with her teammates. Hopefully they could keep up this winning streak and hopefully she could keep hiding her crush on Chris.


	19. If You Can't Take the Heat Part I

It was just like any other morning at Camp Wawanakwa. The guys were being guys over by the lake, some of the girls were sunbathing, and Erin was, unsurprisingly, sketching something or another on the steps of her cabin.  Chris sat on the steps of the Mess Hall, his headphones in his ears as he, once again, watched one of Erin’s videos. He knew the last thing he needed to be doing was watching the videos of the girl he was into, but he couldn’t help it. At the moment, he was watching a video from when she was at the Toronto GeekCon right before TDI started. It must not have been that easy for her to go immediately from a convention, spend two days packing for Total Drama, and then leave for the rest of the summer.

 _“Hey, everyone!”_ the Erin in the video said with a huge smile. She was dressed up as a character Chris actually recognized; Katara from _Avatar; The Last Airbender_. It was kind of amazing how she could make herself look so different from her usual self.   _“So it’s day one of Toronto GeekCon. I’m super excited to be here and to be judging the cosplay contest for the second year in a row. I’m also finally doing a cosplay construction panel, so I’m psyched for that. Hopefully we actually have a turnout.”_ The Erin in the video grimaced, but then seemed to shrug it off. _“I’m so excited to bring you all with me on this vlogging journey! Let day one BEGIN!”_ Most of the rest of the video was a compilation of various videos of other cosplayers, some clips of Erin in what looked like an art vendor room, and then some video of her cosplay construction panel. Not that Chris fully understood any of what Erin was saying in that panel… He had no idea what the sewing techniques she was talking about even were nor did he fully understand what exactly “Worbla” and “EVA Foam” were. Later on it showed Erin in her hotel room with about three other people, all of them laughing and screaming while watching some kind of anime on the hotel TV.

“ _So I had a last minute cosplay emergency,”_ Erin said, her face tense. “ _Basically, my cosplay for tomorrow, Flemeth, had some technical issues whist traveling. Namely the wig. Which decided it wanted to completely mess itself up. I also lost quite a few rivets in the corset. So I’m going to be up all night doing this. But at least I’m not Paper here with a see through skirt because he forgot to fucking_ line _it.”_ The green haired guy in the background winked and gave the camera a thumbs up. _“He’s gonna be hand-sewing lining all night too. #justanotherconcosplay-messup-bullshit-thing.”_ Then it suddenly cut to the entire hotel room singing along to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Chris found himself chuckling at the sight of Erin standing on top of a bed using a mallet as a microphone, dancing dramatically to the music and singing along intentionally badly. Then the screen went black and white letters saying “Day Two” popped up. Then it was a video of Erin, but she was dressed up as some sort of character with horn-like white hair, gold eyes, and very elaborate studded leather armor with black feathers on the shoulder.  

“ _Day twoooooooooooooooo!”_ Erin shouted. “ _I’m so glad I actually got Flemeth together, holy shit._ _So to those of you who aren’t as familiar with con life, Saturday is always the bulkiest day, not to mention the cosplay contest today. So I can’t go to some of the panels I want to go to which sucks because they finally have a Mass Effect panel. I was gonna get into lore, guys! Lore!”_  She sighed and shook her head while wistfully looking off into the distance. _“Oh well, c’est la vie.”_ It immediately cut to a video of what looked like nachos with a pretzel and a hamburger on top, all covered in fake cheese product. _“BONE APP THE TEETH!!!”_ he heard Erin shout in the background.

“Yo! Chris!”

Chris suddenly exited the YouTube app and pulled up his email as a form of cover. Chef walked up to him and arched an eyebrow at his behavior.

“What’s up, Chef?” Chris said.

“Uh… the food truck is on its way,” Chef said. “You might wanna tell the campers what their challenge is.”

“Yeah, sweet, uh, awesome,” Chris stammered out as he put away his phone. “I’ll get right on that.”

“You good, man?” Chef asked, still very suspicious of Chris. Chris scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“I’m cool,” he replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re acting like a spaz,” Chef said.

“I’m fine,” Chris said as he stood up. “Just go and enjoy your day off.” Chef let out a humph and shook his head.

“Those kids mess up my kitchen and there’ll be hell to pay…” Chef grumbled as he stalked off towards craft services. Chris sighed, got up, and motioned for the crew to start rounding up the campers and prepping their cameras. Chris tucked his phone and his earbuds into his pocket. He had a lot more video to watch while they were doing their challenge… maybe a few more videos after… He looked over and watched as Erin nearly tripped up the steps into her cabin in her rush to put away her art supplies.

 _Damn it, Hoffman_ , he thought to himself.

* * *

Erin found herself standing on the beach with the rest of the campers and Chris standing in front of them. Soon she’d find out what today’s challenge was. Hopefully the Killer Bass would win yet another challenge. Everyone on that team was in good spirits with their winning streak and all of them weren’t planning on letting that streak break. Mostly because eventually the Gophers would vote of Heather, which would save _everyone_ from more massive headaches induced by said bitch queen.

“Today’s challenge will test your minds, your teamwork, and your skills in the kitchen,” Chris said.

“Oh damn,” Erin muttered under her breath. Could she sew a cosplay in under a day? Yes. Could she cook anything besides instant ramen and microwavable entrees? Not a chance.

“You will be cooking a three course meal and serving it to me for tasting,” Chris said, completely ignoring Erin’s aside. “The winners get a reward. The losers will send somebody home. Each team will appoint a head chef to create the theme of the meal and to oversee the cooking. To cook, you need ingredients.” Chris gestured to the lake and out popped a truck. It literally backed out of the water and onto the beach. Erin dropped her jaw and stared at it blankly. How was that even possible? “Every morning a truck brings us food. Today’s task starts there.” Suddenly a dolphin wearing a hat appeared in the driver’s seat window.

“Is that a fucking dolphin?” Erin screeched.

“Language, Hoffman,” Chris said as the dolphin waved saluted and made dolphin sounds.

“Oh, shit! Sorry,” Erin said. She widened her eyes and covered her mouth with her hands when she realized she swore again.

“ _Hoffman_.”

“Sorry!” she said again. Chris simply sighed and shook his head.

“Just go get your food, everyone,” Chris said. “Bass, since you were the winners you get first pick.” The Killer Bass all ran towards the truck, ready to pick out their meal plan. DJ and Geoff both grabbed the handles of the back door and pulled them open. There was so much food inside that truck. Meats, fruits, veggies, bread… so much real food that Erin and the other campers hadn’t seen for weeks! If only they could eat this food… but she doubted that was allowed.

“We could do a killer Italian theme!” Geoff said as he looked around the truck.

“Hello, Head Chef!” Duncan said with a smirk. Geoff dropped his jaw and looked at his teammates.

“Seriously?” Geoff asked.

“Hell yeah!” Erin said.

“Alright!” Geoff shouted. “Then let’s get grabbing!”

“So what are we making?” Erin asked as she climbed into the truck. Geoff leaned against the door and tapped his finger on his chin as he thought.

“Pasta for sure,” Geoff said. “Um… how about an antipasto for our appetizer and cannoli for dessert?”

“Sounds great!” DJ said. “We got this in the bag.”  

“Yeah!” Geoff shouted. He looked around the truck and smiled. “Alright, so we need olives, deli meat, pepperoni, and cheese for the antipasto, spaghetti, tomato sauce, and meatball stuff for the pasta, and then dough and cream for the cannoli.”

“We’re on it,” Bridgette said as she climbed into the truck. One by one, the Killer Bass grabbed the ingredients that they needed for this Italian dinner. Erin grabbed a giant crate full of assorted Italian cheeses like provolone and mozzarella. Oh how she missed mozzarella… Behind the Bass was Heather shouting orders for her teammates to grab specific ingredients. She must have bullied her way into being Head Chef for the Screaming Gophers. That poor, poor team.  The Killer Bass paid no mind to them, however, as they carried their crates of food back to the kitchens. Erin almost felt hesitant to enter Chef’s domain. Nevertheless, Erin had to put her fear of Chef aside for the sake of this challenge.

“Okay,” Geoff said as he finally entered the kitchen with the rest of the Killer Bass. He tossed a can of tomato sauce between his hands as he spoke. “We got, like, three courses and seven people. He tossed the can of tomato sauce to Harold, who actually caught it. So partner up and figure out who the group of three’s gonna be.”

“I know how to make pasta sauce,” DJ said.

“I know how to boil pasta,” Bridgette said.

“I can kinda make meatballs,” Erin added with a shrug. “So I guess that makes us the group of three.” Her, DJ, and Bridgette did a somewhat awkward three-way high five and smiled at each other, knowing they had a plan.

“Me and Sadie can rock the antipasto,” Harold said. “I’m like a black belt when it comes to cutting cheese.” Immediately, all of the Killer Bass started snickering and laughing at Harold and his sheer obliviousness. “What?” Harold asked, clearly not getting it. Erin let out another chuckle and shook her head. “What!?”

“I guess that leaves you and me on dessert detail,” Duncan said to Courtney. Courtney rolled her eyes and grimaced, clearly not wanting to be stuck with him for an entire challenge.

“Oh no,” she said, standing up. “No way.”

“Come on, Courtney, for the team,” Geoff said. He put his arms around her and Duncan’s shoulders and looked between the two of them hopefully. She looked over at Erin with huge, brown puppy dog eyes.

“Erin? Wanna switch?” Courtney asked.

“I’m good where I am,” Erin replied with a smirk as she leaned against the kitchen island. Courtney groaned and slumped down.

“Fine,” Courtney said. “I’ll do it.”

“Awesome! Let’s get cooking!” Geoff said. The entire team cheered and then moved to their respective stations. Erin cracked her knuckles and then got out the ground beef and a mixing bowl. Now if she could just remember exactly how her Grandma made them… she was pretty sure there was garlic and onion in there… She looked over and saw that the guys were all talking under their breath to each other. Well, all the guys but Harold. It was no secret to anyone in Wawanakwa that they were annoyed by Harold leaving his underwear all over the Bass boys’ cabin. They were probably plotting revenge. “Be right back, guys,” Geoff suddenly said as he darted out of the kitchen. Bridgette and Erin looked at each other and shrugged, both silently brushing it off as another guy thing. While Geoff was gone, Team Pasta (as Erin had started dubbing her, DJ, and Bridgette) began their prep work for the spaghetti and meatballs. DJ had taken a pot and started filling it with water.

“Ah, cooking legit pasta,” Erin said with a smirk. “It’s gonna be weird making noodles that aren’t ramen.”

“How much ramen do you eat?” Bridgette asked as she leaned against the counter. Erin let out a laugh and sighed.

“Too much,” Erin said. “Way too much. I’m honestly surprised that my blood isn’t entirely comprised of salt by now.” Bridgette laughed at that and then tucked some of her hair behind her ear.

“Anything I can do with the meatballs while I wait on water?” she asked. Erin shrugged as she dumped the ground beef into the mixing bowl.

“I think I’m good, unless you wanna help me chop up onions or garlic,” Erin said. She walked over to the fridge and took out the carton of eggs. It wasn’t long before DJ had the entire pot of water filled.

“Uh, where do you want the water, Bridge?” DJ asked as he carried the pot across the kitchen. Suddenly he tripped and spilled all of the water on Harold. “Oops!” He said with very, very obvious false sincerity.

“Hey!” Harold shouted. “Smooth move, dorkahontas.”

“Oh, bummer,” Geoff said. “Better go change, dude.” Harold glared at Geoff and DJ before stomping off out of the kitchen. Both Erin and Bridgette narrowed their eyes as DJ and Geoff fist-bumped behind Harold’s back while snickering. As Harold left, the Screaming Gopher’s came in.

“Gwen, Lindsay, you’re on the citrus macadamia upside-down-cake flambé,” Heather ordered as the Gophers carried in their tropical-esque ingredients. Apparently they were doing something along the lines of a Hawaiian theme. Owen came in with a huge bag of oranges, only to bump into Heather and spill all of them. Erin ended up picking one off the floor and started to peel it. She might as well take the snack that so willingly rolled up to her foot. Heather glared at Owen and said, “Go back to the truck and get more oranges.”

“I’m on it!” Owen shouted as he walked back out of the kitchen. Erin ended up rolling her eyes and started to tune out the Screaming Gophers. After all, she had some meatballs to make. After preheating the oven, she made her way to the kitchen island where she’d laid out her meatball ingredients. She started humming to herself as she cracked the eggs into the bowl of raw ground beef. She took out the dried basil flakes she found earlier and dumped what seemed to be a reasonable amount into the meatballs. The same eyeballing method went into the addition of the garlic and onion powder.

“Yo, Bridge,” DJ called out. “Can you help me chop up these tomatoes for the sauce.”

“Sure,” Bridgette said. She moved over to where Erin and DJ had set up their stations on the island and grabbed one of the cutting boards. Geoff wandered around the kitchen, whistling to himself as he checked up on Bridgette’s pot of boiling water and every other thing going on in the Bass kitchen. Erin smirked to herself when Geoff and Bridgette kept looking at each other as she kept hand-mixing the meat.

“I think he digs you,” DJ whispered to Bridgette.

“Maybe…” she replied as she kept cutting tomatoes. “He _is_ kinda cute.”

“Girl, he’s definitely into you,” Erin whispered. “He’s literally modeling for you right now.” She looked up and watched as Geoff leaned against the wall and adjusted his hat. DJ smirked, ran over towards Geoff, and shoved him in Bridgette’s directions.

“You know,” Geoff said, “You look good when you’re cooking dinner. Kind of like my friend Evan’s really hot mom.” Erin dropped her head and facepalmed, getting raw meat and egg all over her forehead.

“Excuse me!?” Bridgette snapped. DJ winced and rushed over to Geoff.

“Geoff, why don’t you go get us some more tomatoes, dude?” DJ asked, desperate to defuse the awkwardness at the pasta station.

“Sure thing, bud,” Geoff said. He winked at Bridgette and said, “Later, Bridge,” before heading over to the fridge for more tomatoes. Bridgette shook her head and kept chopping up tomatoes.

“Oh yeah, he’s into you,” Erin said. “Only guys seriously into a girl say something that dumb and think it’s a good attempt at flirting.”

“It’s okay everyone!” Erin looked over into the Gopher kitchen to see Owen coming in with a crate of orange and a massive amount of hornet stings. “I’m back! Trent, heads up!” Owen tossed the entire crate of oranges at Trent, resulting in Trent getting hit square in the face.  Erin dropped her jaw at the sight of Trent not moving with a crate of oranges on his head.

“Damn it!” Heather shrieked. She groaned and then pointed at Erin. “You, go tell Chris.”

“Me? Why?” Erin asked. “I’m not even on your team.”

“Because Chris won’t kill you,” Heather said in an annoyed tone. Erin huffed, rolled her eyes, and stomped out the kitchen, muttering obscenities under her breath. She didn’t have to walk far, as Chris was sitting at one of the tables in the dining hall, staring intently at his phone with his earbuds in, like he was earlier that morning. Chris looked up when Erin walked closer to him and took his earbuds out.

“Okay, who got hurt?” Chris asked.

“How did you know?” Erin asked dryly.

“Because they always send you when someone has a concussion or something,” he replied.

“Owen chucked a crate of oranges at Trent’s head and now he’s kind of unconscious,” Erin explained. He didn’t need long-winded details right now, nor did Erin have time to give them. She had meatballs to get back to, as well as a preheating oven. Chris arched an eyebrow at this. “I know, you’d think Owen would know not to throw a crate of oranges as a guy’s head but clearly…”

“These kids,” Chris muttered under his breath. He typed in a number on his cell phone and called up someone. “Yeah, we need med over here. Trent got hit in the head with a crate of oranges.” There was silence on Chris’ end for a few moments. “No, you heard me right. Oranges to the head… uh uh… ‘kay, thanks.” He put his phone back in his pocket and said, “They’ll be here in five.”

“Sweet,” Erin said. She awkwardly shifted her weight between her feet and stammered out, “I kinda have an oven preheating. I should, uh, probably check on that. Make sure it’s not gonna burn down the place.”

“Yeah,” Chris replied. “Not burning down the place sounds good. Because if you did, Chef would kill you and I don’t like you dead.” Erin let out a small giggled. “Yeah… dying is bad.”

“Especially murder at the hands of an angry chef,” she said. “Yep… see ya at the end of the challenge when you eat my food.” Wow… what was that? See you when you eat my food?

“See ya then,” he replied, just as awkwardly. Erin high-tailed it out of there and back to her kitchen station. She ignored everyone as she started rolling up meatballs one by one. So much awkwardness… it was starting to get hard to handle.

* * *

Erin leaned against the counter, waiting for her meatballs to finish baking. Duncan and Courtney had taken over the counter space to work on their cannoli. “Careful your big paws don’t mash the pastry,” Courtney snapped.

“Careful your uptight butt doesn’t curdle the custard,” Duncan retorted.

“Oh, ha ha ha,” Courtney snorted. She suddenly shrieked and dropped her stirring spoon. Erin dropped her jaw as she witnessed Harold enter the room wearing no pants and a tiny red thong that left nothing to the imagination.

“NOPE!” Erin screamed, covering her eyes.

“Okay, who took all my shorts?” Harold asked. DJ and Geoff both snickered with each other and exchanged glances will all the other guys in the room. Of course this was a stupid teenage boy thing… Erin shouldn’t have expected any less. Suddenly Chris appeared at the swinging saloon doors with a furrowed brow… that is until he looked down and saw Harold’s thong. He grimaced and shuddered in disgust.

“Three hours and counting, guys,” Chris said before fleeing the hell out of there. Not that Erin blamed him. She wanted flee the fuck out of the kitchen too. She just crossed her arms and kept watching that oven, waiting for meatballs to get all cooked and pretty.


End file.
